(Siena’s POV)
I don’t sleep.
Raiden’s words replay in my mind over and over, as insistent as the spring rain drumming against the windows of my temporary quarters.
I love you, Siena.
Not as a political arrangement or a convenient alliance, but for exactly who you are.
For years, I longed to hear those words. I would’ve given anything to hear them spoken with sincerity, to look into his eyes and see the love I desperately sought.
But now, when they finally come, they feel less like a balm and more like a thorn pressed into an old wound.
Because now, I know what it feels like to stand on my own. Now, I know I don’t need his love to be whole.
Yet, despite everything, I can’t stop thinking about the way he said it—without pleading, without expectation, a
