"In the quiet between two breaths, we remember that even kings and seers were born to run beneath the moon."
ALARIC'S POV
The stability of the Kingdom was a heavy, necessary weight that I carried daily. Still, the stability of my chambers, the sheer, immovable reality of Elias and the twin pups, was demanding a different kind of strength. After yesterday's high-stakes negotiation regarding the frozen salmon and burned mangoes, I needed the wild. I needed to move.
Elias, who had been confined to the Throne of Cushions for weeks, felt the same desperate urge for freedom.
"Alaric," he murmured early that morning, carefully extracting himself from the complex web of pillows without triggering a structural collapse. He managed to stand, which was a feat of willpower that rivalled any diplomatic negotiation. "I am going to phase. If I do not feel the earth beneath my claws within the next hour, I fear I will phase right through this floor and into the map room."
