Chapter 82 Crowned In Fire

• The wind howled through the broken archways of Avaris, rattling loose stones and ghost-whispers through the air, as if the kingdom itself was drawing breath for the first time in a century. Espen stood at the edge of the crumbled throne hall, the dawn casting her in soft gold.
• Mikko watched her from where he leaned against a fractured column, arms crossed, lips twitching like he was imagining a hundred different ways to pin her to that sunlit stone.
• “Stop looking at me like that,” Espen said without turning around.