*Kaelen*
I shouldn’t be sneaking around like this, trying to run into Sierra any chance I can take. Long ways around, detours through unprecedented hallways, every avenue I can find to be in the same space as her, to breathe the air she breathes. A quiet warmth beneath my ribs grows, steady and insistent, like a heartbeat that isn’t mine but knows my name.
The pull tightens the moment I spot her. She’s kneeling in the eastern gardens, the late afternoon sun filtering through the trellised vines overhead, catching in her hair and highlighting her skin. It doesn’t rush me forward. It anchors me. Roots me to the flagstones as if the ground itself wants me still.
She senses me—of course she does—and looks up. Our eyes meet, and the world narrows. There’s a flicker of surprise, quickly maske
