~ Seraphina's POV ~
I didn’t want to let go.
Not for a second. Not for a heartbeat.
My hand clung to Alaric’s, the warmth of his skin branding mine, coarse calluses scraping against my palm like the memory of battles he never spoke of.
His fingers twitched weakly, a tremor barely noticeable to anyone else, but I felt it. I felt everything. The scorching heat of his fevered body, the way the bedsheets stuck to his sweat-dampened skin, the rise and fall of his ragged breathing. He was breaking. Unraveling right in front of me.
And I was terrified.
Not of the curse gnawing at him. Not of the power that radiated from him in erratic, dangerous waves. But of the eyes in this room. Watching. Judging. Calculating.
They knew.
They knew now. Who I was.
Seraphina Valerius.
A cursed name amo
