Zār’s gaze never wavered, his silver eyes holding hers captive. The faint smile that tugged at his lips was softer than anything she’d seen from him before, almost reverent. The weight of his presence filled the air around them, as heavy as it was intoxicating.
“You have this way of… standing out, no matter where you are,” he continued, his voice steady but intimate, as if this moment was meant to be shared only between them. “Like you don’t belong to any one place, but at the same time, you make every place feel incomplete without you.”
Alarielle felt her cheeks heat, her pulse quickening at the raw honesty in his words. She wasn’t used to such compliments, especially ones so deeply personal. Her fingers toyed with the edge of her dress as she struggled to find a response. “I… don’t kno
