Chapter 20 Mira Runs Away

• The storm had not yet broken, but the manor carried its weight like a living creature trembling before the skies split open. The chandeliers swayed gently with a breath that wasn’t there, the shadows curling longer across the walls. It was as though the manor itself knew what had happened between them, what truths had been torn open in the dark of the night.
• Mira hadn’t slept; she had sat at her window, staring out into the endless sweep of forest, her reflection faint in the glass, eyes rimmed red, lips still trembling from his confession. Mate. That word had lodged itself into her chest like an arrowhead, sharp and immovable. Every time she inhaled, she felt it deeper.
• Cassian hadn’t knocked on her door. He hadn’t sought her out. And though she told herself that was what she wanted, space, silence, time to think the hollowness it left behind gnawed at her until dawn bled through the sky.