Alaric's POV
I did not ride back to the palace.
I could not.
Shadow carried me only far enough that the manor lights dulled behind me, then I dismounted and stood in the darkness, every muscle coiled tight.
She was there.
Just a few walls and locked doors away.
My Rose. My wife. My sanity.
And I couldn't reach her.
My hand still shook from striking Aidan. My brother.
His blood was on my knuckles, but it was not that which haunted me, it was his words.
If you love her, give her this time.
Time. A single night. Do they think I will survive the hours knowing she lies in another house, away from my grasp?
I had never felt so close to madness, and yet so chained by it.
She thinks she can leave me? Run from me?
No. Daphne is mine.
Her breath, her body, her soul.
Even in her fury. Even in her tears.
I pressed a hand against my chest, as though I could calm the hollow there.
But it ached, an ache too sharp, too endless. Without her, every breath was poison.
