The feast dripped with false celebration.
Until Kaelen rose.
He held a goblet carved from a pale, translucent stone, red veins running through it like old blood. The hall hushed.
“To peace,” he said. “To unity. And to the Princess who brings it.”
He reached down, took my hand, and drew me to my feet.
“To my future bride. May she bring peace, grace, and heirs to Caerthaine’s throne.”
There was no pause. No question. Just a bitter smile and the flare of goblets raised in practiced rhythm.
I tried to breathe. But I couldn’t.
Across the room, Erindor hadn’t moved.
But I could feel him there, a pulse at the edge of everything.
And I looked at him.
Just once.
He didn’t look back, but he clenched his fists and tightened his jaw.
I didn’t taste the food. I smiled when I remembered to. I lifted my goblet with the others when Kaelen did. My hands moved, my face moved, but none of it felt like mine.
I was a storybook figure being read aloud.
From her perch near the musicians, a noblewoman's voice, a rustle of silk and gossip, drifted from behind her fan: “She looks younger than I thought.”
Another sipped from a glass cut with emeralds. “Elyrien must be desperate to send her.”
They weren’t whispering to hide. They were whispering to be heard.
One man with a pinched mouth and a jeweled sash added, “He’s a collector. Perhaps she’s another trinket for his shelf.”
I held my goblet tighter.
Kaelen smiled beside me. That same sculpted, practice-perfect expression. His hand never left mine, resting too firmly, like I might bolt.
And he wouldn’t be wrong.
Every instinct inside of me roared a single command: run.
My eyes drifted toward the outer wall.
Erindor stood as still as ever, cloaked in shadows at the edge of the hall.
He hadn’t looked away from me once.
Gideon stood beside him, arms folded. Jasira sat quietly near the second table, unreadable behind her lashes.
A gong sounded softly, not a chime of celebration, but a cue. Kaelen stood, his smile widening.
“Come, darling,” he said, loud enough for all to hear. “They’ll expect us to open the floor.”
My legs were already up and moving before I had even realized it.
