Both of them were smiling on their way home.

Riding on the back of the horse named Midnight, Aeliana no longer felt the weariness or the faint tremor of nervousness that usually accompanied her every time she's at the top of the horse.

The presence of Silvanus behind her brought her an inexplicable sense of peace.

There was a quiet intimacy in the way he held her — gentle, steady, yet full of unspoken depth.

And Aeliana knew within herself that she was beginning to like the strange, ...