To read: Teacher's pet...new Bl novel out now
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The sun rose like a fresh wound that morning, bleeding red across the sky until the whole horizon looked ready to split open and spill secrets. I woke with the taste of iron already in my mouth, as though my body knew before my mind did that today was going to bite back. The palace still slept, soft and golden in the false dawn, but I was already moving, leather bracers creaking against my wrists, short sword heavy at my hip, heart drumming a rhythm that felt half battle, half warning.
Gavin waited in the stable yard. Black armor strapped tight across that massive chest of his, sword at his side, second blade across his back like he planned to fight two wars at once. His dark eyes found me the second I stepped into the torchlight, and for one heartbeat the warrior mask cracked—just a flicker of something softer, something that said *I would burn the world before I let it touch you*—then slammed shut again.
