And when I woke near dawn, I was already planning how to make those dreams reality.
Chapter
Five
RION
Sleep was a stranger that refused to visit.
I lay on my narrow bed, staring at the ceiling where moonlight painted shifting patterns through the single window. The militant quarters were silent around me—my brothers-in-arms lost in the deep sleep that came after hard training and harder discipline. But rest eluded me like an enemy who knew my weaknesses too well.
Six days.
Six days until the bonding ceremony, and time had become my tormentor. Hours crawled past with the speed of wounded prey, each minute stretching into an eternity of anticipation and dread. I'd tried counting breaths, reciting battle formations, even reviewing quartermaster reports—anything to quiet the restless energy that coursed through my veins like molten metal.
Nothing worked.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. Kaelen,standing in that ceremonial pavilion with sunlight caught in his dark hair and storm-grey eyes that seemed to see straight through every wall I'd built. The way he'd smiled when I'd stumbled over my words—not mockingly, but with genuine warmth that had made my chest tight with something I couldn't name.
"Are you ready for this, Rion?"
His voice had been warm honey over steel, cultured but with an undertone that made me think of bedchambers and whispered secrets. When he'd spoken my name—just my name, not my rank or title—it had sounded different on his lips.
I sat up with a frustrated growl, running hands through hair that was already disheveled from tossing and turning. The room felt too small, too confining. My skin itched with the need to move, to do something other than lie here replaying every moment of our brief meeting.
Rising, I crossed to the window and leaned against the cool stone frame. The palace gardens spread below in a tapestry of silver and shadow, moonlight transforming familiar paths into something ethereal and inviting. Somewhere out there, beyond the militant wing, lay the scholarly quarters where Kaelen probably slept peacefully in his bed.
Or did he?
The thought came unbidden, dangerous in its implications. Was he lying awake too? Was he thinking about our meeting, about the formal words that had passed between us, about the way the air hadseemed to shimmer with possibility when our eyes met?
I pressed my forehead against the cool glass, breath fogging the surface. This was madness. I was a soldier, trained in discipline and control. I shouldn't be standing at my window like some lovesick boy, wondering about a man I'd spoken to for less than an hour.
But discipline felt like a coat that no longer fit, and control was a word that had lost all meaning the moment Kaelen had looked at me with those intelligent eyes and asked if I was ready.
Movement in the gardens below caught my attention. A figure moved along the moonlit path, too tall and lean to be one of the groundskeepers, too graceful to be a guard on patrol. My breath caught as the figure stepped into a patch of clearer light, revealing dark hair and the flowing robes of a scholar.
Kaelen.
He walked with purpose but not haste, following the winding path that led from the scholarly wing toward... toward the militant quarters. Toward my window.
My heart began to race as he drew closer, moving through the shadows with the confidence of someone who belonged wherever he chose to be. When he finally stopped directly below my window and looked up, meeting my gaze as I opened the window, and I felt something fundamental shift in my chest.
"I couldn't sleep either," he said, his voice carrying clearly in the still night air.
I leaned further out the window, suddenly grateful that militant quarters were built at ground level for quick deployment. "Scholar Kaelen. It's late."
"Too late for sleep, it seems." His smile was visible even in the moonlight, warm and inviting. "The night is too beautiful to waste lying awake alone. Would you care to walk with me? Just to talk."
The offer hung between us like a bridge I could choose to cross or burn. Duty whispered that I should decline, that fraternizing with my bonding partner before the ceremony was irregular, possibly improper. Protocol demanded that I maintain appropriate distance until the ritual made our partnership official.
But something deeper than duty was stirring—the same instinct that had kept me alive through countless battles, the ability to recognize when a moment offered opportunity rather than threat.
"Give me a moment," I said.
I dressed quickly in a simple tunic, forgoing the formal robes that marked my rank. If I was going to break protocol, I might as well be comfortable doing it. The night air was warm when I slipped through my window, dropping silently to the garden path where Kaelen waited.
Up close, he was even more striking than memory had painted him. Moonlight loved his features, highlighting the sharp line of his jaw and the subtle strength in his shoulders. He wore scholar's robes of deep blue silk that seemed to flow around him like water, and when he smiled at my appearance, something in my chest loosened for the first time in days.
