Hearts of Gold but Forbidden to Love

Previously

…He turned, his torch casting a long, wavering shadow down the alley, and then he was gone, leaving Elara standing amidst the quiet murmurs of the sick, her heart pounding, a new, terrifying, and exhilarating possibility blooming within her. The garden had always been her sanctuary, her secret world. But now, it seemed, its secrets were beginning to spill out into the harsh light of Eldoria, and with them, the seeds of a dangerous, forbidden connection.