After that heart-to-heart conversation, I felt as though my relationship with Cassel had grown firmer—closer and closer.
We had already been lovers for some time. Still, now it was clear that there was a strange kind of connection between us: familiarity, unspoken understanding, and emotions laid bare, even when we were merely standing side by side without doing anything intimate.
I felt an unfamiliar, comforting ease—a freedom and relief beyond imagination. That secret of mine had been pressing on my heart without my awareness, constantly filling me with negativity and fear. And now, it was gone.
I smiled happily as I looked at Cassel sitting beside me, his expression rigid, his eyes focused as he spoke with Caro, the leader, and the two other commanders.
After a night filled with honesty and openness—after a conversation from heart to heart, without secrets or concealment—and falling asleep in each other's arms…
