Freya‘s pov.

The journey with Arius had changed.

It wasn’t just the path we walked anymore. It was the conversations that grew longer. The silences that felt less like tension and more like quiet understanding. He still held secrets—too many—but there were moments when I thought I saw something real under the surface.

And that was dangerous.

Sometimes I caught myself almost justifying him. The way he talked about freedom, about wanting a life that had been ...