No sound.
Had they all died?
My heart lurched. Had the poison I slipped into their food been too potent? Had my wish come true in the most unforgivable way?
I sat at the edge of my seat, tense and breathless. My eyes never left Balthazar’s face.
“I don’t want to leave you,” I confessed, the words trembling from my lips like fragile leaves caught in the wind.
“Goodbye,” he said softly, “for now.”
He cupped my hands, unwilling to let go. Our fingers locked together, a reluctant goodbye. His lips found mine one last time—a kiss that lingered like a vow, soaked in longing.
I stepped down into the night, the cold biting instantly.
Inside, the house was still.
Too still.
I crept in, every floorboard groaning beneath my weight. My heart pounded, waiting—listening.
But no cries of pain. No retching. Just silence.
I climbed the stairs.
Then—
A sound.
I heard my parents’ rhythmic, peaceful snores behind their bedroom door. Relief flooded me in a quiet wave. They were alive, unharmed.
The poison had only weakened them and not destroyed them.
I slipped into my bedroom and closed the door behind me, the latch clicking like a final drumbeat in the hush.
And then I saw him.
Balthazar.
Outside my window, he stood perfectly still, shrouded in shadows and moonlight, as if he had never truly left. The heat of his gaze pressed against my skin, searing through the glass, through my soul.
A ripple of shivers chased down my spine. My breath caught.
I couldn’t move.
Was it fear?
Or captivation?
I didn’t know.
All I knew was the ache—the unbearable longing pulling me toward him. The way my heart thundered like a drum, summoning something primal. The way every part of me yearned.
I pressed my palm to the windowpane.
And in the silence, beneath the spell of moonlight and memory…
I wished for nothing more than to be in his arms again.
