Dinner with the king was tonight, and neither Thorne nor Phoenix had returned.
Three days.
Three long, gnawing days without them, and I felt their absence like a raw wound I couldn't bandage, no matter how hard I tried.
Everly — an elderly woman with kind eyes and a no-nonsense manner — had appeared in my room not long after I discovered the dress. She informed me, without ceremony, that she was to be my new maid assistant.
As if that wasn't enough, the king had also decided I was to be moved —relocated, he said — tomore fitting accommodationsfor someone of my “station.”
I hated how the word tasted in my mouth.
The new room was a wing inside Blackspire Keep itself.
It was too much — far too much — for someone like me. The sheer size of it pressed down on me like a weight. The ruins I’dlived in, barely more than a roof and crumbling walls, could have fit inside this one chamber three times over.
The bed alone was obscene — the size of a tennis court, if not bigger — draped in rich, heavy linens, the sheets as soft as a sigh, the feather pillows stacked high like a fortress.
The walls gleamed with pale stone, veined with silver. A chandelier hung overhead, delicate and cruelly beautiful.
I had a window, too — a wide arched thing that overlooked the city’s heart, where spired peaks and marble buildings crowded the skyline like teeth.
The view should have been breathtaking.
Instead, it felt like standing at the edge of a cliff, waiting for the earth to give out beneath me.
The wardrobe was full of gowns and dresses, ridiculous in their opulence. None of it practical.
I felt like a whore, just waiting to pay my dues.
The bathroom was its own monster — larger than my entire old cell.
The tub was sunken into the floor, big enough to swim in, surrounded by shelves stocked with every luxury a girl could imagine — and a hundred things I never would have thought to want.
Moisturizers, powders, oils that smelled of crushed flowers and sunlight. Lip stains. Perfumes. Serums for skin, for hair, for nails. All of it waiting there, gleaming in soft candlelight, as if the king thought he could drown me in comfort and make me forget who I was.
I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering despite the warm air.
All he had done with this grandiose gesture had made me a target to the other trainees. If they didn’t hate me before, they did now.
This wasn’t a room. It was a cage gilded in gold and silk — and somewhere, deep down, I knew it was just the beginning.
Leo had stood with me that first night, his eyes scanning the opulence with a dark, unreadable expression.
“Well, when the King makes a move, he makes a move,” he said dryly, as if trying to make light of the situation.
“This isn’t funny,” I snapped, the edge of panic creeping into my voice. “What the hell am I supposed to do here? What does this mean?” The words came out in a rush, almost frantic. I felt the edges of hysteria closing in, my breath coming too fast.
“Calm down, Elle.”
“Calm down? Have you seen this place?” I gestured violently around the room. “He’s going to make me pay for this, isn’t he?” I wrapped my arms around myself, the air feeling colder with each passing second, and my skin crawling with the memory of his touch — even though he hadn’t laid a finger on me yet.
Leo moved toward me, kneeling beside me, his hands gently resting on my thighs. His touch was grounding, but it didn’t erase the unease gnawing at me from the inside. “Look,” he said, his voice low and reassuring. “We’ve got a deal with the King—for now,” he said, jaw tight. “While you’re under our protection, he’s not supposed to touch you.”
He didn’t sound convinced. Not entirely.
I couldn’t meet his eyes. I was too busy trying to steady my breathing, but his words didn’t do much to ease the knot of dread in my chest.
“He’s the goddamn king, Leo,” I muttered, my voice tight. “I’m pretty sure he can do whatever the hell he wants.”
