Selene’s POV
For a heartbeat, I could do nothing but breathe him in.
Kael stood only a few steps away, snow melting from his cloak, his eyes dark against the faint gold of the lantern between us.
The years had not softened him—if anything, they had carved him sharper. The boy who once carried quiet defiance in his eyes had become something colder, harder, yet still unbearably human in the way his hand trembled when he finally exhaled.
“You shouldn’t have come,” I whispered.
He gave a half-smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You lit the lantern.”
The simple truth of it broke the air between us. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The storm outside filled the silence, its wind rattling the shutters like a restless spirit.
He stepped closer, the warmth of his presence cutting throug
