Jealousy's Unmasking

I stared at Adrian's retreating back as he stormed away, his powerful frame radiating fury with each step. My heart hammered in my chest, a mixture of fear and something else—something I wasn't ready to acknowledge.

"What the hell just happened?" I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.

Tristan rubbed his neck where Adrian's fingers had left angry red marks. "That, my dear Seraphina, was pure, unfiltered jealousy."

"Jealousy?" I echoed, the word feeling strange on my tongue.

We'd been innocently training. Well, mostly innocent—Tristan had been flirtatious, but that was just his nature. But Adrian's reaction... it was like I'd caught him in the act of something far more intimate.

"He looked like he wanted to rip your head off," I said to Tristan.

He gave a rueful smile. "And yours too, for allowing it to happen."

Leo approached cautiously, his young face twisted with concern. "Dad never gets that mad. Not even when I set fire to the curtains in the east wing."