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After Alaric stepped into the chambers, Lady Vaelor gave Zara a lingering glance before silently excusing herself, her expression unreadable as she disappeared through the doorway. The air shifted the moment the door shut behind her, leaving Zara and Alaric alone in the flickering candlelight.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Zara still couldn't believe she was standing here, face to face with the man who had taken everything from her. The man who had bound her to him with chains she could not see but could feel tightening around her soul.
She wasn't sure who spoke first, but somehow, they began talking.
Their words were cautious at first, laced with veiled hostility, but as the conversation unfolded, Zara found herself, for the first time staring at him, not as the ruthless warlord, not as the man who had stolen her kingdom, but as something else. Something human.
And that was when she noticed it.