The estate was quiet.
A peaceful quiet that only came deep into the night, when even shadows slept and only memories stirred.
Asuriel stood outside the balcony of her room, a silk robe wrapped around her tightly, her bare feet chilled by the stone beneath them. The city beyond the grand yard flickered faintly, stars swallowed by Veridion's glow.
She didn't know why she couldn't sleep.
…Or maybe she did and didn't want to admit it to herself.
There were plenty of valid reasons for her to struggle to sleep; her father was alive and encapsulated in an object possessed by Vaerion's brother, her body wouldn't last more than six months at most, her mother died, she was a princess in the underworld…
But none of those were the reason.
Asuriel sensed him before she saw him – that infernal pull in her chest, that strange warmth that always seemed to settle in her heart whenever he was nearby.
Vaerion.
