a's

n, and the small flame Poppy's gossip had lit in me had spent the

as I walked through the long, torch-

thing. It meant this was likely not about ph

y oak door for me and the

fire crackled in the hearth, warming the

eading a document. He didn't look up. He a

tly in front of me. The silence stretched, thick with un

he set the document down and lifted his ice

sk. He gestured to a messy pile of parch

ned me for this? For a

y fingers moved over the ancient scrolls, reco

gaze was a physical weight on my back, makin

re his oppressive stare. This was just anothe

ough the silence. "I heard you've been praying to the Moon

ret wish during the last moon festival. Only Clara knew-Clara, the kitchen girl who shared my

ara betray me? Or did h

the desk until he stood before me. He b

into my hand. His fingertips brushed against the back of my

y ear, his warm breath raising goosebumps on my skin

coiled in my stomach. The older servants had a name for that sweetness. It comes off an Alpha in the days before his Rut, when h

n a desperate anchor against the strange, invasive heat

ki, the physician's apprentice, spoke from the other side. "You

tly reverting to its usual cold mask. He shot

d, he turned and st

gasping for air, my legs

: I had to get away from here. Kaelen was a monste

izing the last of the sc

the servants lived, my heart still pounding. I

our small, shared room. It

bread and a note. It was Clara's handwriting.