Chapter 31 - Shadowed games

The palace corridors felt narrower after midnight, as though the walls themselves had drawn closer to listen. I had left Gavin by the fire in the clearing, his vow still warm on my palm like a brand that refused to cool. The cut had stopped bleeding long before we parted, but the scar would remain faint, a thin white line across the life line. I traced it absently as I walked back, bare feet silent on the cool marble. The palace slept, or pretended to. Servants moved like ghosts, heads bowed, eyes averted. Guards stood at their posts, faces carved from stone. No one stopped me. No one dared.