Brynn
The world stilled.
It was as though even the mountain outside, ancient and proud, had paused to listen. The cold wind that forever howled around the Fiato peaks fell quiet. The torches burned lower, flickering gold and amber light across Mia’s skin.
It was as if even the night animals knew that there was something scared going on in the castle for all the voices stopped.
I could hear her heartbeat, soft, steady, alive, and Frynn’s breath beside me, mirroring my own. For the first time since the day we found her in the waters of that cursed sea, I felt… whole.
Mia was ours. Not as property, not as conquest, but as the other piece of our fractured souls finally returned.
Her eyes, bright and stormy, lifted to meet mine. The same courage that had made her stand against those men b
