Dravina POV

No matter how deeply I breathed, the knot in my stomach refused to loosen. All day I’d been pacing the fine line between the dread of the Council’s summons and a fragile, foolish hope that it might not be the end not yet.

In my heart, I already knew better. My connection to Malrik had always been a precarious thing, stretched thin over circumstances neither of us could bend. There was no future carved for us, not in this lifetime. I understood that truth.

And yet… a selfish ...