Selene’s POV
The fortress had never been this quiet.
After the envoy’s departure, the silence became a weight in the air — thick, pressing, alive. The soldiers moved softer, their armor dulled under frost. Even the fire in the great hall burned with restraint, as if wary of drawing the Moon’s eye.
I could feel her watching.
Not with sight — something deeper, older, colder than vision.
When Kael left to calm the council, I stayed in my chambers, though “rest” was an impossible thing now. Every flicker of light, every whisper of wind along the stones carried her pulse — the steady rhythm of something that remembered me far better than I remembered it.
That night, I didn’t sleep.
When I closed my eyes, the air around me thickened until it felt like water pressing against my ribs. The s
