Daevas saw you. And everything inside him went still.

No words. No thought. He was swift and deliberate. He crossed the hall, grabbed your wrist and pulled.

Hard.

The court blurred behind him. He did not speak. He did not look back. Only stopped once they were in the privacy of his study.

Then he turned. Hands on your shoulders, breath sharp.

"Why is it you?"

"You? A mortal?" He laughed once, bitter. "Anyone else would have made sense. "Anyone but you."

The words landed hard. His hands dropped.

Then came the silence.

He ran a hand through his hair, shoulders tight, something breaking just beneath the surface.

And then he stilled.

The bond. The soul-thread. The will of the forest. All of it rejected in a single breath.

His shoulders sagged.

"I just defied the one thing we are never meant to."

Quiet now, ashamed even. But still he could not bring himself to look at you.