LOGINSergio's POVI thought about Leandro, sitting on his throne with his cold eyes and his cold heart. He had chosen the law over mercy, and he had chosen the court over me.I had trusted him, and I had believed that he was changing, and that he was becoming something better. But I had been very wrong.I knew I had to go back inside. So I turned, and I started walking toward the castle gates.And then I saw him.Leandro was standing in the snow, with his golden eyes fixed on me, and his dark coat blending into the shadows. His face was pale, and his jaw was tight, and he looked like he had been standing there for a long time."Sergio," he said.I stopped walking."I tried to find you," he said. "I looked for you after you left, and I wanted to explain.""There is nothing to explain," I cut him off."There is," he said. "I did not want to do it. I really did not want to exile her, but I had
Sergio's POVI stayed against the door for what felt like hours, but it was probably only minutes. The silence in the castle pressed down on me, heavy and cold, and I could not shake the image of Leticia's face from my mind. The way she had looked at me, and the way she had smiled even as they dragged her away.Then it hit me, that I had not said goodbye.I had not held her one last time. I had not told her that I would find her, that I would bring her back, and that I would not let her disappear into the frozen waste without knowing that someone cared.I pushed myself off the door, and I ran.The door slammed behind me, and I was running as fast as I could.My bare feet were cold against the stone floor of the hallway, but I did not care. I did not care about anything except catching up to Leticia, before they dragged her out into the frozen waste.I had to say goodbye, and I had to see her one more time.My heart was pounding so hard that I could barely hear my own thoughts. I had
Sergio's povLeticia did not flinch. She knelt on the cold stone floor with her hands bound and her wrists bleeding, and she looked at Leandro like she was not afraid of him."I betrayed a castle full of monsters," she said. "And I am not sorry for that. I am sorry that I got caught, and I am sorry that I will not be able to send more warnings. But I am not sorry for trying to save lives."Leandro's hands curled into fists on the arms of his throne."You knew the punishment for treason," he said."I knew," Leticia said. "I also knew that if I did nothing, people would die, children would die, and families would be torn apart. And I could not live with that."She looked at me, and her grey eyes were sad."I am sorry, Sergio," she said. "I did not mean to drag you into this.""I sentence you to exile," Leandro said. "You will be taken to the frozen waste and left there. If you survive, do not return."
Sergio's POVThe morning started like any other, but then, the shouting started.I woke to the pale grey light filtering through the window, and I lay in bed for a few moments, listening to the silence. Leandro was gone, called away to deal with some matter I did not ask about, but the warmth of his body still lingered on the sheets beside me.I dressed slowly, and I walked to the table, and I ate my breakfast without waiting for permission. The bread was warm, and the tea was sweet, and I thought about how far I had come.The ring on my finger caught the light as I reached for the cup of tea. I still could not believe it was real sometimes, that I was allowed to have something so precious, or that someone had given it to me without expecting anything in return. I twisted it around my finger, and I remembered the way Leandro had looked at me when he gave it to me, with his golden eyes that were soft and uncertain, like he was afraid I might refuse.But I had not refused. I had taken
Sergio's POVThe days after the confession passed differently than the ones before.I noticed small things that I had never noticed before. I noticed the way the morning light turned the snow on the windowsill into something that looked like diamonds, the way the tea tasted different depending on which servant brewed it, and the way the guards outside my door shifted their weight from one foot to the other when they thought no one was watching.I had spent so much of my life hiding, making myself small, and not noticing anything because noticing meant being present, and being present meant being vulnerable.But I was tired of hiding.I started keeping a small notebook on the table beside my bed. Every morning, I wrote down one thing I was grateful for. Some days it was the warmth of the fire, and other days it was the taste of honey in my tea. Once, it was simply the fact that I had woken up without a nightmare.It felt strange at first, like I was pretending to be someone I was not.
Sergio's POVLeandro noticed I was still shaking.The tea was gone, and the morning light had grown brighter, but my body had not stopped trembling, because the thoughts of the nightmare still clung to my skin like frost, and I could not shake it off no matter how hard I tried.Leandro watched me with those golden eyes, and I could see the worry painted all over his face. The dark circles under his eyes looked deeper than before, and his hair was still messy from the night, and he looked like he had aged years in just a few hours."You need to warm up," he said. "You are still cold."I looked down at my hands, and they were pale, and my fingers were trembling. He was right. The nightmare had left something behind, a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room."I will prepare a bath," he said. He stood up and walked to the door. "Stay here."I almost laughed, because obviously I was not go
Sergio's POVThe morning after Leandro stayed in my room, I woke to find him gone.The space beside me was still warm, and the indent of his body was still pressed into the mattress, and I could smell him on the pillows, like snow and smoke and something wild that I was starting to recognize. I la
Sergio's POVA servant came to my room the evening after my conversation with Elara, and she was not carrying the usual tray of bread and cheese. She stood in the doorway with her hands folded in front of her, and she would not look at me when she spoke, like the message she was delivering might g
I found Elara in the library the morning after Ramiro brought Lady Seraphina to the castle.The library was quiet this morning, nothing like the day I had seen Leandro standing in the shadow of the bookshelf, watching me with those burning golden eyes. Today, the shelves stretched from floor to ceil
I was walking back to my room after another supervised walk through the halls, with my mind still full of the image of Leandro breaking that guard's arm, when I heard voices coming from the throne room. The doors were open, which was unusual, and torchlight spilled out into the corr







