Chapter 78. 

  Author’s POV   Hazel had just woken up a few hours after taking a nap. The soft warmth of the sheets still lingered on her skin, but the cold emptiness beside her made her chest tighten slightly. No one was beside her. Her lashes fluttered open slowly as she groaned softly, her body still heavy from sleep. She stretched herself out, taking a deep breath as her limbs loosened. With sluggish movements, she pulled herself out of bed, her bare feet brushing against the cool floor.   She slipped into his dress—still smelling faintly of Axel’s cologne—and made her way downstairs, her fingers trailing along the railing as if it grounded her. But then her legs came to an abrupt halt.   A voice. Sharp. Familiar.   “I am not here to see you, Axel… bring me my sister.”   Hazel’s heart skipped a beat. Her brother.   “You do not speak to our Lord like that,” one of the guards warned, but Axel cut him off with a silent raise of his hand—his composure unshaken, his face unreadable.   Hazel’s