Virelya lay on her back staring up at the stone ceiling without truly seeing it. The faint gray of daybreak crept through the narrow window, washing the room in colorless light. Sleep had not come. She had watched the fire in the hearth burn down to nothing but red veins in the ash.

  The storm had passed.

  But the quiet it left behind felt heavier.

  She lifted her arm and studied the tattoo at her wrist. The ink twisted in intricate knots, black and unyielding. Fifteen years, and it had not faded. It looked as new as the day it had been carved into her skin.

  She traced one of the lines with her fingertip.

  The memory came easily.

  She did not push it away.

  She stood in the training yard, younger, breathless from exertion. Her cloak lay discarded on the stone bench because of the unusual warmth of that autumn afternoon.

  Aethryn stood across from her, dagger knocked from his hand.

  She had expected anger.

  Instead…he smiled.

  “My little shadow,” he had said gently, stepping closer. “You have grown so much. I am so proud of you.”

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  The words had filled her chest like sunlight.

  Proud.

  Of her.

  She remembered looking down at her hands then, small, unscarred, unmarked. No rune wound around her skin yet.

  She had wanted it.

  Gods, she had wanted it.

  To belong to someone.

  To matter.

  To be chosen.

  Aethryn had been training her personally since Bas had failed to return from his assignment. She had noticed the shift even before Bas left, how distant he had become, how quiet. How Aethryn’s attention had turned instead toward her.

  She had not questioned it.

  She had told him everything she observed.

  Every weakness.

  Every hesitation.

  Every mistake.

  Eager to prove herself worthy.

  Aethryn walked towards hers across the training yard softly tucking a stray curl behind her ear.

  “You will join me tonight, a special dinner for my beautiful little shadow.”

  She had returned to her room and found a beautiful black dress that fit like a glove. She took extra time making sure her curls laid just right. When she entered the dining hall the smells had been heavenly. Warm bread and meat, potatoes and root vegetables, and for dessert the most decadent chocolate cake. The laughter had come so easily and she had felt loved in a way she never had before. She had eagerly followed Aethryn through the halls of the keep and he had shown her the most beautiful library before leading her to the lower levels. The room was small and the door had closed heavily.

  He stepped close to her his hand softly gripping her left wrist and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “My little shadow, you will always have me with you now.”

  The tattoo had spread across her skin in warm strokes and she had smiled into his grey eyes.

  She had never felt safer.

  She dragged herself from the memory, her finger still resting on the line of her rune tattoo.

  Bas had been distant.

  She had reported everything.

  She had been so eager.

  Had wanted so badly to belong to someone.

  What had she done?

  She sat straight up in her bed.

  Kaida.