The monastery slept under a thin blanket of frost, but the chapel never truly slept. A single red lamp burned before the tabernacle, throwing blood-colored shadows across the vaulted ceiling. Elias moved through the nave like a ghost, drawn by the low throb of the organ that should not have been playing at this hour.
He had spent the day in a haze of soreness and secret thrill. Every time he shifted on the hard refectory bench, Matteo’s load shifted inside him, a slow, warm reminder. Luca had watched him across the table with cool amusement. Matteo had not looked at him at all. The twins, Rafael and Ramon, had stared openly, identical smirks curling identical mouths, until Elias felt stripped all over again.
Now the organ called him. A single sustained note, then another, climbing the sc
