Nyssa's POV:
“Not for the King’s daughter. For sure.”
That last part stayed with me long after he turned away.
It wasn’t the fire I feared anymore. It was that. The way his words cut without raising his voice. Like, I was poisoned just by blood. A daughter of the man who caged him.
I didn’t speak. Couldn’t. I just stood there in the dim torchlight, staring at his back, feeling the weight of a thousand secrets press against my chest.
I wasn’t angry.
I was hurt.
And worse—I understood why he said it.
How could I expect him to trust me fully when I hadn’t even told him the truth about who I really was? Not just the King’s daughter. Not just some pawn in this palace. But his mate, maybe. And I was lying to him.
I had to do something. Say something. Before this bond frayed too far to b
