EMMA
The garden was a sanctuary of stone and silver, a walled-in courtyard hidden in the heart of the estate where the wind couldn’t reach. The silence here was heavy, broken only by the soft, rhythmic hiss of snow settling on the basalt pavers.
Gabriel stood in the center of the space, his bare chest bronzed by the moonlight. He looked like a statue from a forgotten age, but the air around him was shimmering with a heat that made the snowflakes melt before they could touch his skin.
"Gabriel," I whispered, my voice caught in the back of my throat. "You don't have to do this. Not for me."
"I do," he said, and the sound was already changing, vibrating with a tectonic depth. He looked at me, his emerald eyes wide and filled with a raw, agonizing vulnerability. "You need to see the man in
