Elara's POV
Long, evening shadows stretch across my small room, and there’s still no sign of Kael. He’s been gone since morning. I’ve been pacing for what feels like hours, wearing out a path on the wood floor between the window and the door. Each time I hear footsteps in the hallway, my hopes rise, only to sink again when they pass by without stopping.
He’s gone. The thought is devastating, even though I’ve been trying to prepare myself for it all day. Of course he’s gone. What did I expect? That a man like him would stay in a place like this, with someone like me, forever?
I sink onto the bed, my hands trembling as I pick up one of the gifts he gave me: a small, carved, wooden cat, so intricately detailed that I can see the individual strands of its tail. When he first placed it in my
