"Love is never just tenderness; it is also defiance, the quiet courage to ask for help, and the trust that someone will step into the shadows with you.
KAEL'S POV
The lantern light in the Eastern wing always burned softer than the rest of the castle, as though this place carried its own hush, its own secrets. My footsteps echoed lightly along the stone floors as I made my way toward Lord Rivan Ostel's chamber, and though I had every reason to keep my mind on the matter at hand, my heart was racing for entirely different reasons. It was not the first time I had sought him out at night. And gods help me, I knew it would not be the last. I knocked lightly on the carved oak door, and for a moment, silence and his voice low, velvet, unmistakable.
"Enter."
