~ Alaric’s POV ~
I left her again.
How could she possibly comfort me when all I ever did was give her the cold shoulder?
Always pushing her away.
Always keeping a safe distance, like that, would protect either of us from the truth.
She wasn’t fire.
She was frost that burned.
I used to think silence was strength. That real power came from restraint—hiding every crack until even I forgot they were there. I lived that way for years. Built for battle. Forged to protect. I built everything from scratch, and I vowed never to feel anything.
But tonight, silence wasn’t armor.
It was a cage.
And it was breaking, piece by piece, under the weight of her.
Sera.
She wasn’t the broken girl I found in the woods anymore.
She was stronger now—shaped by pain, sharpened by betrayal.
There was
