The way she moves, it’s like she’s floating, but you can see the strength in it under all that grace. She dances with her uncle, and when he spins her, Lioran catches her mid-spin. I can’t take it anymore. It’s like someone's squeezing my lungs, and everything inside me is too hot. The noise in the hall is too loud, and the air feels too thick.
I slip out of the hall before I can’t breathe anymore,stepping into the night air, trying to cool my head.
I tell myself I just need some space, that I’m suffocating in the music, in the laughter, in the people, but the truth is, it’s her. It’s always her.
Before I can think, before I can stop myself, my feet carry me toward the lake. Toward the cave.
I don’t know why I’m drawn to it. Yesterday, when I stumbled across it, I couldn’t bring myself to leave for hours.
The glowworms light the ceiling like scattered stars, the spring steaming softly in the center. I lower myself near the water, leaning forward, watching the moonlight shine across its ripples.
It feels so familiar here in a way that unsettles me. Like a memory I can’t grab, lingering just out of reach.
I don’t know how long I sit here, lost in thought, before a sound cuts through the stillness—
My name.
Barely a breath, but it strikes like lightning through the quiet.
I freeze, my head snapping up.
The torchlight from the hall hadn’t done Serenya justice. Here, beneath the faint glow of the worms and the silver moonlight across her starlit dress, she is…breathtaking. More than that.Otherworldly.
Her eyes lock on mine, wide with surprise, and then she asks, voice barely above a whisper, “What are you doing here?”
Gods, I wish I knew.
------------? ? ? ? ?------------
Serenya
I’d been anxious to talk to him all evening. Though I wasn’t sure what I would even say. Koen was in my thoughts the entire time I was in Noctheron, and I still don’t know what to do with that. Every night, I told myself that I cannot let myself feel anything. Not for him. Not when I’ve already lost so much.
But Dimitri and Ravelle’s words linger in the back of my mind. I wouldn’t be betraying Kallan by opening my heart again. I want to believe that, I really do. However, standing here, in the place where I shared so many stolen, intimate moments with him, I don’t know what to feel. A part of me wants to scream that Koen shouldn’t be here. That this cave belongs to my past. Another part of me, the part that betrays me with every breath, whispers that it feelsright. That he belongs here just as much as I do.
He looks as startled as I feel, his expression caught between confusion and something deeper. His voice is low when he answers my question, almost uncertain.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I just…felt drawn here.”
My traitorousheart squeezes. Before I can think better of it, I cross the stone floor and sink down beside him. Slipping off my heels, I lower my feet into the steaming water, sighing at the warmth. For a heartbeat, he only watches me. Then he follows my lead, tugging off his shoes, rolling up his pant legs, and turning slightly to ease his feet into the spring beside mine.
The silence hums between us. Being here with him is dangerous. I want to lean my head against his shoulder, to feel his arms close around me like they did in those ruins.
I swallow hard, reaching for anything to keep from drowning in the pull of him.
“Torin mentioned that you asked about me,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry. For making you worry.”
He glances at me, expression shadowed. “You don’t ever have to apologize,” he says, his voice gravelly.
Silence stretches between us again. The only sounds are the drip of water, the soft hiss of the spring. I can feel his eyes on me, burning into my skin, studying my face like I hold an answer he’s desperate to find.
It’s strange, seeing him so quiet—so serious. Koen is always quick with a jab or a teasing remark. But here, there’s none of that. Just silence. Just him, looking at me as though I’m something fragile and precious.
At last, I turn to meet his gaze. He’s so close, closer than I thought, and for a moment, the world shrinks down to the gold of his eyes and the space of a single breath between us.
“It feels like I’ve been here with you before,” he murmurs, so softly I almost think I imagine it. His gaze drops to my mouth briefly before returning to my eyes.
My heart flutters. I let myself look at him for a few seconds too long, caught in the fragile stillness between us, before I force my gaze away.
