Elara’s POV

Dawn crept through the curtains like a thief.

I hadn’t slept at all. My eyes were dry and burning, fixed on the slow shift of light across the ceiling as night bled into morning. The patterns changed from silver to pale gold, and I tracked every shade like a woman memorizing a landscape she’d never see again.

Kaelen’s arm was still draped across my waist. Heavy. Warm. His breath stirred the hair at the back of my neck in a slow, steady rhythm.

I closed my eyes and let myself feel it. The heat of his chest against my spine. The weight of his hand resting just below my ribs. The faint scent of cedarwood and iron that clung to his skin no matter how many times he bathed.

Remember this.

His arm tightened. He shifted behind me, pulling me closer, and his lips brushed the curve of my shoulder.

"Morning," he murmured. His voice was rough with sleep. Intimate. The kind of sound that belonged only to this room, this bed, this space between us that no one else would ever occupy.

"Morning." My voice came out steady. I’d practiced this. Rehearsed it in the dark hours while he slept. Every word. Every inflection.

He propped himself on one elbow, and I felt his gaze on the side of my face. Those dark gold eyes—searching, always searching.

"Did you sleep?"

"I slept very well, honestly. I was just a little tired after Riley’s party yesterday, so I drifted off quickly." The lie slid out smooth as silk. I even managed a small smile as I turned to face him.

He huffed a quiet laugh. His thumb traced a lazy circle on my hip.

"You’re sure you’re all right?"

"I’m sure."

Liar.

We talked for a few more precious minutes. He engaged with me warmly, and when he mentioned he might be a little late coming back tonight, I crossed to the wardrobe where his formal clothes hung in neat rows. I selected a silk cravat—deep burgundy, his color—and turned to face him.

He stood still as I looped it around his collar. My fingers worked the knot with practiced precision, smoothing the silk flat against his chest. I could feel his heartbeat through the fabric. Strong. Steady. Alive.

"There." I straightened the fold. Let my palms rest against his chest for one beat too long.

He caught my chin. Tilted my face up.

"I’ll see you tonight," he murmured warmly, a dark gold promise in his eyes. "We’ll continue our intimate moments then. I promise."

I rose on my toes and kissed him deeply, masking my lie about seeing him later. His hand curved around the back of my neck, and for one terrible, perfect moment, my resolve cracked straight down the center.

I pulled back before it shattered completely.

"See you tonight."

He smiled. Pressed one last kiss to my forehead. Then he was gone, his boots echoing down the corridor.

I stood in the empty bedroom and pressed both hands over my mouth until the sound building in my throat died.

Before heading downstairs, I began the morning routine I had perfected over the past year—brewing herbal tea and preparing breakfast.

The kitchen smelled like oats and honey. I poured myself a cup of herbal tea while Valerius sat at the table, hunched over a bowl of cereal, his black hair sticking up in three different directions. He stabbed his spoon into the bowl with the grim determination of a soldier preparing for battle.

"What’s wrong, sweetheart?" I asked. My hands did not shake.

"Math test." He said the words like a curse. "Fractions."

I slid into the chair beside him. "Which part?"

"All of it. Fractions are stupid."

I smoothed down the most rebellious tuft of his hair. It sprang right back up. "You know what? Daddy’s actually very good at fractions. He’s going to help you with your homework tonight. And he’ll pick you up from the academy too."

His dark gold eyes—those eyes that were a mirror of his father’s—lit up. "Really? He promised?"

"He promised."

"Eat your cereal, sweetheart," I said gently.

He grinned. Shoved a massive spoonful into his mouth. Milk dribbled down his chin.

I reached over and wiped it with my thumb. He squirmed away, laughing.

"Mommy, stop. I’m not a baby."

"You’ll always be my baby."

He rolled his eyes with all the dramatic intensity his small face could produce. Then he grabbed his satchel from the chair, swung it over his shoulder, and headed for the door.

After breakfast, I drove him to the academy. Standing outside the building, he looked at me innocently and shouted, "Mommy!" before running into the academy.

I watched him disappear inside.

I cried on the drive home. Hard, ugly sobs that I muffled with the back of my hand. By the time I pulled through our gates, my face was dry and my expression was composed and there was nothing left on the surface to betray what churned beneath.

---

The nanny met me at the door. A round-faced woman with kind eyes and capable hands.

"Good morning, Lady Nightfire. The baby has already finished her morning bottle. She’s wide awake and full of opinions, as usual."

I managed a smile. "Sounds about right."

I found Lyra in the nursery, propped in her crib, gurgling at the mobile of painted wooden stars that hung above her. When she saw me, her face split into a gummy, wide-open smile that destroyed me completely.

I lifted her out.

She was so light. So impossibly small and warm and alive. Her dark hair was getting longer—fine as spider silk, curling slightly at the ends. Her eyes shifted between green and blue as the morning light moved through the window.

I carried her to the rocking chair by the window and sat down.

She reached up immediately and tangled her fingers in a loose strand of my hair. Tugged. Babbled something that sounded vaguely like a word but wasn’t.

"My beautiful girl." My voice broke on the second word. I pressed my lips together until I could trust it again. "You’re going to grow up so strong. Just like your daddy. You hear me? Strong and brave and fierce."

She blinked at me. Those shifting eyes—green, blue, green again—focused on my face with an intensity that seemed impossible for someone so small.

"Mommy’s not strong enough to stay." The words came out in a whisper. Ragged. Barely human. "I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, little one. I’m not strong enough to stay for you."

She yanked on my hair. Hard.

A wet laugh escaped me. I kissed her forehead. Her cheeks. The tiny crease of her neck that always smelled like milk and soap. She squirmed and giggled, and the sound carved a wound so deep inside me that I knew it would never fully heal.

I rocked her until her eyelids grew heavy. Until her grip on my hair loosened and her breathing softened into the gentle rhythm of sleep.

I pressed one last kiss to her head and placed the little one back in the crib. Tucked the blanket around her. Stood watching her chest rise and fall.

Then I turned away.

---

"I’ll be out running errands for most of the day," I told the nanny. "Valerius’s father will pick him up from the academy this evening."

"Of course, Lady Nightfire. We’ll be just fine here."

I climbed the stairs. Entered the bedchamber.

The room still smelled like him. Cedarwood. Iron. That faint, wild undertone that was uniquely Kaelen.

I moved quickly. A small bag from the back of the wardrobe. I stuffed it with the essentials.

I worked in silence. Efficient. Methodical. Performing normalcy so flawlessly that even I almost believed it.

The letter was already written. I’d composed it in my head a hundred times, but I’d put ink to paper last night while he slept. Brief. Clean. No dramatics, no accusations, no desperate pleas for forgiveness.

Just the truth, stripped bare.

I placed the folded, clean paper on his pillow for him to discover tonight. Smoothed the linen around it. Let my fingers linger on the indent where his head had rested just hours ago.

I picked up the bag. Walked to the door. Did not look back at the bed.

Down the stairs. Through the corridor. Past the kitchen where my cold tea still sat on the table. Past the nursery door, closed now, where my daughter slept.

I stopped at the front entrance. My hand rested on the iron latch.

The house was quiet. Warm. Full of the sounds of a life I had built and was now leaving behind. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Goodbye," I whispered.

I opened the door and stepped through.