Chapter Thirty-Three: The Day I Didn’t Go
Nikolai's POV
She told me not to come.
And I didn’t.
Not because I didn’t want to.
God, I wanted to.
My body had memorized the path to her studio, the exact number of steps from the south courtyard to the north wing, the scent of varnish in the morning air, and the echo of her silence behind the door she always left just slightly ajar.
But this time… it was closed.
Intentionally.
Lovingly.
“Don’t come tomorrow,” she had said, her voice the softest I’d ever heard it.
“Let me miss you.”
It wasn’t rejection.
It was permission.
The kind only the brave ask for.
The kind only someone who wants you for the right reasons will give.
She wanted to miss me.
So I stayed away.
And I counted the hours by the weight of not seeing her.
**
I wo
