ALESSIO’S POV
Restraint is a skill you learn early when power is placed in your hands too young.
You learn it the first time you realize men will kill because you asked them to. You learn it the first time you deny yourself something you want because wanting it would make you weak. Over the years it becomes instinct, muscle memory, a constant quiet calculation between desire and consequence.
Seraphina made that instinct falter.
Not loudly. Not recklessly. She did it the way she does everything, subtly, without intention, simply by existing too close to the edges I keep reinforced.
After she left my apartment, the silence lingered longer than usual. Not empty silence. Charged. The kind that presses against your ribs and refuses to settle. I poured a drink I didn’t need and didn’t touc
