Ember Frost POV

I sat quietly in the study room.

The air felt heavy. Everyone carried the same pained look; my father and Duke George kept glancing at the Northern Duke with guilt and sorrow burning in their eyes. But he seemed trapped far inside his grief, barely aware of any of us. It was like he had entered into another world that only he could see.

My mother tapped the seat beside her, urging me to join her on the couch. When she noticed the tension in my face, she brushed a strand of ...