***Cadiz***
I avoided him for five days.
Five days of careful distance, of scheduling my training sessions when I knew he'd be in council meetings, of taking meals in my room, of coming to bed only after I was certain he was asleep. Five days of building walls around my heart, brick by careful brick.
But walls couldn't keep out the memories, couldn't silence the voice in my head replaying Darius's words over and over.
*"Making him believe you actually fell in love with him rather than just following Uncle Magnus's orders to emotionally manipulate him into compliance."*
On the sixth day, Raizel stopped letting me run.
I was in the library, pretending to read a text on Primal abilities, when he walked in and locked the door behind him. The click of the lock was soft but final.
"We need to talk," he said, his voice steady but strained. "Now."
I didn't look up from my book. "I'm busy."
