Lorien POV

I couldn’t refuse him not when he looked at me like that.

“Okay.”

Auren didn’t waste a second. His fingers tightened around mine, guiding me through the crowd and out the back doors into the gardens. The moment the cool night air wrapped around me, I understood why people whispered about this place. This was where he’d fought Riven yet standing here, I couldn’t imagine violence. Moonlight washed over everything, soft and silver, and the garden seemed to breathe around ...