Chapter 68

• Cesmae's POV
• The days dragged by, each one more nerve-wracking than the last. It had been several days since I gave Raizel the letter, and still, nothing. No updates. No reassurance that he had found the culprit. The nightmares had only gotten worse. They weren’t just about Damaris anymore; now they were about me. My downfall—cruel, vivid scenes where everything I feared came true. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, gasping for breath as the visions clawed at my mind.
• Spending time with Mimimi was the only thing that kept me grounded. But even that felt like I was hiding behind a mask, pretending to be okay when I wasn’t. And Kylian... he was hardly around anymore. He was busy, I knew that, but a small part of me couldn’t help but feel abandoned. Every morning, he left before I could even speak to him, and by the time he returned, it was late, and I didn’t want to trouble him. Raizel had put him in charge of something important, and while I missed his company, I was also grateful. He would’ve seen through my façade instantly. And if Kylian found out the truth—about the letter, the nightmares—I wanted to be the one to tell him. In my own time. Not while I was a trembling wreck.