It was a quiet, lonely night.
The palace lay still and was wrapped by the silver moonlight in the sky. Nyella stood alone on the rooftop of the royal house and rested her hands on the stone railing as she gazed out toward the distant hills. She kept staring at the darkness with her mind lost in thought.
She couldn't stop replaying the moment in her head, the way Elarya had shouted at her and the anger in her voice.
Maybe she's right, Nyella thought. Maybe this is my fault. Maybe everything Aeron is going through now… it all began when I came into his life.
The thought stung her chest. She wrapped her arms around herself, almost as if to shield her heart from it.
"What would make a young girl, who has everything, stand out here in the middle of the night staring into the distance, if not love?"
The voice behind her was warm and teasing.
Nyella turned quickly. "Mother? What do you mean?"
