Kaelen's POV
The palace was quiet. The kind of quiet that only came deep in the night, when even the torches burned lower and the corridors emptied of everything except shadows. Three hours had passed since Elara's chambers had gone dark and silent. Three hours since I had taken my position outside her door and told myself this was just a duty. Just a post. Just a job.
I was a bad liar. Always had been.
I shifted my weight and immediately regretted it. Pain flared across my back, hot and sharp, radiating from the still-healing lashes down through my shoulders and spine. I breathed through it carefully, the way you learn to breathe through pain when you have been carrying it long enough. Not trying to ignore it. Just letting it pass through without letting it swallow you whole.
Six more hours until dawn.
