Talia's POV
The room felt bigger when I was alone in it.
Kaelen had been gone for hours. The fire had burned low, and the shadows had grown long across the stone floor, but i had not moved from the window.
I just stood there, watching the valley darken as the sun sank behind the mountains.
The mountains looked different in the fading light. It looked darker, and larger, like sleeping giants who might wake at any moment. I wondered what my mother would think if she could see me now, standing in a stranger's room, married to a man who would not look at me. She would probably tell me to run, or to fight, or do both.
But I did not know how to do either anymore.
The sky turned orange, then pink, then purple. The clouds that had been heavy with rain finally let go, and drople
