The crow arrived at dawn.It struck the window with a dry, deliberate peck, as if it knew exactly what it was doing. I was already awake. I hadn't slept well for days. Neither had Declan.
I saw it from the corridor, in the library. The crow. Dark, gleaming, pale-eyed. A message tied to its leg. This time, not for me.
Declan took it without surprise.He simply closed his fingers tightly around the cylinder.He said nothing.
"Who is it from?" I asked.
He didn't answer right away. He broke the seal and read in silence. His expression didn't change—but his shoulders did.
"Is it him?" I said. I already knew the answer.
He nodded.
"And what does it say?"
"What we already knew: that he is here. That he watches. That he plays."
I didn't take my eyes off him.
"And what are you going to do?"
"Protect you."
"Even if that means keeping things from me again?"
He lifted his gaze. The gentleness with which he held my eyes was harsher than any reproach.
"Don't confuse things, Sereniah," he said firmly. "Just because you're hurting doesn't give you the right to forget who I am."
It pierced me. Not with violence. With truth.
"I am not your enemy," he continued, more quietly. "But I am not the man you can push away every time you want to test your power."
The silence weighed between us. I admired him for a moment. For his calm. For his presence. For how he could say so much without raising his voice.
I wanted to answer.I wanted to tell him I only wanted to feel safe.But someone entered.
It was Melyra. She had come to speak about the celebration. The day had arrived. The Festival of the Moon.
The conversation remained unfinished. Like so many others between us.
The village transformed.By midday, songs could be heard, crystal bells chiming, the hurried footsteps of children running with colored ribbons. The square was adorned with white veils, floating torches, and spherical lanterns that looked like small moons.Everything revolved around light.
That night, I was to present myself with him.At his side.As his wife. As his bond. As his sign.
Lyanna entered my room carrying a box wrapped in linen.
"It's your dress for tonight," she said, as if handing me armor—and with a smile that suggested she knew me better than she should. "Let them see you as he sees you."
When I opened the box, the air stilled.
It was ethereal.A silver tone that shifted with the light: at times moon-blue, at times liquid pearl. It was hand-embroidered with tiny golden threads that resembled constellations, and it had a translucent cape that fell from the shoulders like star-mist. The neckline was subtle—deep and elegant—revealing my skin without showing more than necessary.
"It was woven for the Moon Guardians," Lyanna told me as she helped braid my hair. "There aren't many…" She paused, as if wanting to say more, but thought better of it.
Before we left, Lyanna took my hands.
"Do you remember the dance I taught you?"
"You taught me that dance for a reason, didn't you?"
"Not all dances are for entertainment," she repeated.
Declan waited for me at the foot of the staircase.When he saw me, he said nothing.But his body tensed.
He wore deep black, with silver details that seemed to pulse like heartbeats. His veins… glowed. A soft radiance that appeared to emerge from within. As if his body remembered what it was made of.
I took his arm without speaking.And we descended together, as if we were part of an ancient rite that had existed long before us.
All eyes were on us. That night… everyone expected to see me at his side.But I only felt him.
We moved through the crowd, and the murmurs rose like pollen. "It's her." "The moon blesses her." "There has never been one like her."I don't know if they said it because of the dress.Or because of the way he looked at me.
The music began.Ancient—strings and slow, enveloping drums. The villagers danced in circles, laughing, drinking.But I remained beside Declan in silence… until someone else approached.
A tall man. Elegant. Wearing a copper-embroidered tunic and a bold gaze.
"Lord Declan, may I?" he asked with a courteous smile.
And I decided to test something.
Declan tensed. He said nothing. But I felt his hand open beside mine.
I accepted.
I danced.Not for pleasure.For strategy.My anger had not left. It had only changed its mask.
The music was slow. The dance, ritualistic. I moved with grace, with precision. Everything Lyanna had taught me.The man praised me. Said I looked like a mythological figure. That he had never seen anything like me.
"How fortunate he must be," he murmured.
"He should be reminded more often," I replied sweetly.
And then I felt it.The shift.The energy.
Declan was approaching.
And when I saw him step into the circle of dancers, I knew he had heard me.
"May I have my wife back?" he said, without a smile.
The man nodded, stepping away respectfully.But before releasing me, Declan murmured in my ear:
"You may be as angry as you wish… but don't forget: you are still mine."
My body shivered.
He took me by the waist. Drew me close.And we danced.
His hands did not tremble. His chest brushed mine.And in that moment, the island seemed to pulse.
The crowd stared at us. It felt as if we floated in the air, as if we had danced together since birth. We began to smile without realizing it. The dance did its work, and suddenly, my irritation faded—for a moment.
His eyes locked on mine made it impossible to focus, and yet his body guided mine with such grace.Dancing, Declan did not look like a lord, but a prince. So masculine, elegant, unbearably handsome.
It irritated me a little. How could a being so perfect exist on this earth? Then I remembered he wasn't—and I laughed inwardly.
"What's so funny?" he whispered.
I had no intention of telling him what was going through my mind. I changed the subject.
"Jealous?" I whispered.
"Very," he replied with a mischievous smile.
He spun me and pulled me closer still.Our lips nearly touching.A different dance.Not public. Not for the village.It was for us.
Later, on the terrace, beneath the clearest sky I had ever seen, he handed me a small black box.
I opened it.A ring.A clear stone. An impossible brilliance. Like a frozen fragment of a star.
"This crystal does not exist in your world," he said. "It forms only under pressure, darkness… and time. It is the purest that exists. There is only one like it."
"And you give it to me?"
"Because you are the only thing I have ever wanted to keep."
I fell silent.
"I cannot change what happened," he added. "You have the right to be angry.But let me protect you.Even… from yourself."
My hands trembled.
I didn't say I forgave him.I didn't say he deserved it.
I simply rested against his chest.And for the first time in days, I closed my eyes without feeling I needed to be ready to fight.
I slept.And I dreamed of a crow…that this time did not bring a letter,but a mirror.And in it…I was someone else.