~SELENE~
By the time I returned to the Keep, the snow had turned to sleet… thin… bitter… and relentless. A storm had gathered while I was gone… but it wasn’t just in the skies.
It was waiting for me inside.
The great hall fell silent the moment I stepped through the doors. Guards paused. Warriors glanced up. Whispers scattered like dry leaves in wind. I didn’t need to look around to know the triplets had already felt it.
They were waiting.
Darius found me first.
He was standing near the hearth… arms crossed over his broad chest… his expression carved from stone. Lucian and Caspian flanked him… both equally unreadable… but their eyes burned in a way I hadn’t seen before.
“You were gone longer than expected,” Darius said… voice cold.
I swallowed.
“He kept me longer than expected.”
