[Ace's POV]
The remnants of our shared meal littered the table—golden pastry flakes, smudges of fruit filling, empty plates sticky with sugar. Ovelia's laughter rang through the room again, that bright, musical sound that made me forget, for a moment, what waited outside. I rubbed my thumb against a stray crumb on the tablecloth, watching it disintegrate into dust.
The warmth in my gut curdled when I remembered Philip's joking proposal. My fingers twitched against the wood grain, the memory triggering a possessive urge that was both foreign and frighteningly familiar.
Even now, the thought made my jaw tighten. Eliana's face flashed in my mind, followed immediately by Ovelia's smile—the way her nose crinkled when she laughed, how her eyes lit up when she baked. Then the familiar cold came, starting at the base of my skull. The world tilted, colors bleeding together as the dining room dissolved into darkness.
▪︎Fenrir's Domain▪︎
