Something in the words struck a strange chord in Reiya, a pang she couldn’t quite name; something small and innocent and painful glimmering beneath the surface.
For the first time, Annaïs felt like a person—not just a rival playing her father’s games.
“You must miss her very much,” Reiya said gently.
Chill slid into place behind the woman’s eyes, locking away whatever had glimmered there for just a moment.
“She lived a fool, and she died a fool,” Annaïs murmured, her voice edged with quiet disdain. “I’ve not missed her for a moment.”
Silence stretched between them. Reiya wasn’t sure how to respond, uncertain whether any words could meet the sudden vehemence in the woman’s voice.
Then, Annaïs blinked, her composure smoothing over like silk.
She laughed softly. “Forgive me, Princess. Nostalgia can be terribly unbecoming.”
Reiya didn’t smile. For all her wariness, for all her readiness to parry every barb Annaïs threw, this gave her pause.
How much of Annaïs’s perfection had been forced upon her?
How much of her polish was a mask she couldn’t afford to remove?
Chapter Fifty-Two
REIYANA
The moment they stepped into the sunlight, heat wrapped around her, thick and unrelenting. Even beneath the swaying date palms, the air shimmered, waves of warmth rising from the sandstone path. The faintest breeze stirred her dress, but it offered little relief.
She tilted her lace parasol, adjusting the angle until delicate patterns of shadow danced across her skin. Beside her, Annaïs mirrored the motion with effortless grace, her poise untouched; any trace of the vulnerability she’d shown in the temple neatly tucked away.
The promenade bustled with life—temple-goers in flowing silks, merchants beckoning passersby, the scent of honeyed dates and spiced tea mingling with lingering incense from the temple.
Her gaze skimmed the crowd, her awareness keen even as she maintained an air of composure. The palace loomed in the distance, promising shade and cool stone, but the journey back stretched beneath the weight of the sun.
Then—just beyond the shifting blur of colours—she caught a flash of copper beneath a dark hood. Someone familiar vanishing and reappearing as they weaved through the crowd.
She froze, breath catching.
Castiel?
“Princess?” Annaïs’s voice cut through the haze, but she barely heard it. Already, she was untangling her arm from her companion’s grip, stepping forward, her eyes locked on the disappearing figure.
Annaïs’s faint protest barely registered. “What’s the matter?”
Reiya brushed her off, parasol slipping from her fingers. The din of the street swelled as she quickened her pace, the voices of merchants and passersby blending into a murmur at the edge of her focus.
She pushed past a pair of camels blocking the path, their low groans barely heard. Another glimpse—the same hooded figure turning a corner by a fruit cart, copper strands catching the sunlight like a beacon.
She called out before she could stop herself. “Castiel!”
Her pulse roared in her ears. Was it truly him? He dared show himself here, in public?
Logic whispered doubt, but instinct screamed louder.
Don’t lose him.
She rounded the corner sharply, slippers skidding on sunbaked stone. The figure was just ahead, slipping through the shadows. Reiya pushed forward, breath shallow, the distance between them closing?—
And then he was gone.
