The morning light filtered through the high, arched windows of the royal bedchamber, casting pale gray beams across the dark silk sheets.
I blinked against the brightness, my eyes adjusting slowly to the quiet room. The space beside me on the massive mattress was completely empty. The sheets were cool where a heavy body had rested just hours before.
Panic hit my chest like a sudden, freezing splash of water.
My breath caught in my throat. I sat up rapidly, pulling the heavy furs tightly around my bare shoulders. The memories of the previous night rushed back in a blinding, chaotic wave. The study. The shattered desk. The intense, raw exposure of giving myself to Flannán after years of guarded isolation.
I had crossed a line I swore I would never approach again. I had opened the deepest
