The courtyard lay still beneath a blanket of freshly fallen snow. Moonlight traced the jagged edges of the castle walls, turning the world into something fragile, something untouchable. Ilyas watched from the shadows, unseen but not unnoticed.

You always knew when he was near.

You stood by the frozen fountain, your cloak drawn tight around your shoulders. The queen had long since retired, yet you remained, staring into the ice as if searching for something hidden beneath its glassy surface. Perhaps you found comfort in the silence, in the cold that bit at your skin, in the distance you placed between yourself and the world inside the castle walls.

Snow crunched beneath his boots as he stepped forward, slow and deliberate. You did not turn.

"You should not be out here alone."

The words were softer than a command, rougher than a concern. They hung in the cold air, unanswered, dissipating like breath against the frost.

Still, you did not face him.

A flicker of irritation stirred in his chest, though he could not decide whether it was at you or at himself. There was something infuriating in your stillness, in the way you denied him without ever speaking a word. Others bowed, obeyed, feared. But you were different. You did not cower, did not bend under the weight of his presence. Instead, you stood untouched, distant, just out of his reach.

It was unbearable.

He closed the space between you with a single step. Gloved fingers brushed the curve of your shoulder, a test, a provocation. He felt the tension in you, the way your breath caught for just a moment before you forced yourself to stillness once more.

His breath curled in the air between you, a whisper of heat against the frozen night.

"You think you can push me away forever?"

No answer. Only silence thick with everything left unsaid.

At last, you turned. And in that fleeting moment, something passed between you. Something unspoken and raw. Hesitation. Defiance. The ghost of a truth neither of you dared acknowledge.