The lanterns made from glowing flowers cast a soft, warm light throughout Luca's treehouse, their gentle illumination spilling through the windows and mixing with the natural moonlight filtering through the leaves.
Like all the other treehouses in the village, his new home glowed with that ethereal, floral radiance that made the forest look like something from a dream.
Inside, Luca sat in a comfortable recliner positioned in what the elves had designed as a study—a small but cozy room lined with shelves, furnished with a sturdy desk, and decorated with hanging plants that seemed to thrive even indoors.
In his hands, he held a book—one of many stacked on the small table beside him.
But these weren't novels or bedtime stories.
They were Nyx's personal journals.
Page after page, volume after volume, all of them recording Julius's actions, habits, movements, and behavior as carefully as she could manage.
Luca had already gone through them all once.
And then twice.
