Chapter 29

Jaxon POV

I’d done the one thing I swore I wouldn’t. I watched Elvira from the window of my chambers. She was in the flower yard with Brielle, laughing, her head tossed back in a way that made her hair shimmer beneath the late afternoon sun. I should’ve looked away. I should’ve turned around and kept walking. But I didn’t.

Instead, I stood there like a fool. My feet felt glued to the floor while my brain screamed at me to move, to speak, to do anything but freeze. But I didn’t. I just stood there, mouth half open, watching the moment slip past me.

“Why are you doing this to yourself?” I muttered under my breath, jaw clenched tight.

The knock at my chamber door pulled me out of my thoughts. “Come in.”

It was Ronan. He stepped inside, arms folded, his usual stern face even more drawn t