Orion’s POV

A strange warmth filled me, a joy I hadn’t felt in a long time, and it came all because of Ember.

Back in my high school days, I had scoffed at the very idea of love, dismissing all the drama the girls gossiped about as nonsense. Sentimentality and weak feelings, I had thought, were luxuries soldiers couldn’t afford.

But now, having stepped into adulthood, still headstrong and rebellious, I realized how effortlessly someone could be drawn into temptation like a small, ...