Chapter 21

SERAPHINA

Cassian came again the next morning.

He didn’t knock loudly. Just a soft tap on the door, then his polite voice.

“May I come in?”

I sat on the edge of the bed, my hands wrapped around my knees.

“Yes.”

He stepped inside, carrying a small wooden box. His eyes moved over me in a slow way, not as a man looking at a woman, but like someone trying to read a wound.

“You slept?” he asked.

“A ...