THE WEIGHT OF HIS NAME

Aeloria never meant for him to matter.

She stands beside Dreathen out of duty, not choice-yet the silence between them grows heavy, charged with everything they refuse to name. He is the son of her enemy. She is the one thing he was never meant to want.

They share looks they shouldn't linger on. Conversations that end too soon. Nights where distance feels louder than words.

"Do not ask me for more than I can give," Aeloria tells him, even as her voice falters.

Dreathen learns her boundaries by heart-and breaks himself keeping them.
"I would rather ache beside you," he admits softly, "than be whole without you."

What began as a lie becomes a waiting game of restraint, longing, and unspoken devotion-where the slowest burn is the most dangerous of all.