Page 42

He crossed the wooden floor of his office toward us without a sound. The way he carried himself reminded me of Valentina the first day I saw her, standing in front of my driveway. Confident. Predatory. But not the same. There was no sleek, feline grace to it. This was collected. More dominated. My body stilled as he stopped just inches from us.

Valentina shifted beside me, her warmth brushing against the tight coil in my chest. It pulled at a thread that I been trying to ignore. It was hard to disregard the feelings that brewed by her presence. But I had to. Because I couldn’t afford to unravel in the tension completely, or her father. His gaze moved over me once, quick, precise, before settling on her.

And just like that… the energy in him changed. His posture softened, not weakened, just… redirected. He inclined toward her without thinking, like it was instinct. His hand lifted, settling on her shoulder. His fingers pressed gently against the silk, careful in a way that didn’t match the rest of him. His eyes met hers through the dark veil. And he nodded.

Approval.

When his voice broke the silence, it rang with familiarity that shouldn’t have existed. “You’ve done well, my child.” Lord Draco’s smirk softened, a purer one replacing it. He was proud of her. Genuinely.

The sound of it pulled at my chest in a way I wasn’t expecting. It reminded me of my mom. Every accomplishment she believed I could reach lit her up in the same way, brighter, louder than this, but the feeling was the same. That same light lived in his eyes. And it unsettled me just as much as it eased me. It meant there could be goodness beneath all the gray I had painted him with.

His voice pulled me from the thought. “You go rest with Arianna,” he said. “I smell her all on you.” A flicker of amusement crossed his expression at the mention of her scent, but it didn’t linger. It settled quickly into a controlled ease. Even with the softness in his tone, I felt the command behind it. “Alexander and I must get reacquainted.”

I jumped at the sound of my name. There was no malice in the way he said it, only that same measured warmth he’d used with her. And that… that threw me off more than anything else. My thoughts tangled quickly. Did I mean more to him than I thought?

I didn’t let myself lean into it, not fully, but the idea settled anyway, heavy and unfamiliar. The thought that someone else might care… I wasn’t sure what to do with that. It felt validating. And terrifying. Because what if I wasn’t enough? I had always believed I was within the bounds of the life I knew. But this wasn’t that life. Who was I supposed to be in Velarune?

Valentina’s soft voice cut through my thoughts, pulling me back into the moment. Her fingers slipped over her father’s with a warm, practiced ease. “Actually,” she said, her tone lifting just slightly as she pressed against his request, “Alexander and I were discussing the logistics of his scent.”

Her eyes flicked toward me, quick, deliberate, before returning to her father. Lord Draco’s lips pressed into a thin line. His eyes closed as he drew in a slow breath, the room seeming to follow the motion with him.

A beat passed.

Then his lids lifted again. “That was an oversight,” he said calmly. “I intended to have our friend handle it, but he hasn’t arrived.” His hand slipped from Valentina’s shoulder as his arms folded neatly across his chest. “I can’t retrieve what we need until he does.”

Valentina stepped forward just slightly, her smile soft, but intentional. The kind that wore people down without them realizing it. “I can go to the Northern Mountain of Eari,” she offered. “The Lyoraxe could help. He was worried someone might catch his scent.”

A smirk curved over Draco’s lips, faintly amused as his gaze shifted to me. “This was your idea?”

The question caught in my throat before I could answer it. I cleared it, forcing the words out before my nerves could spike any further. “Yes, sir.” It was the most I trusted myself to say.

His mouth tightened again, not disapproval, just thought. “Good,” he said after a moment. “Eliza would track any villager who even claimed to have caught his scent.” He gestured toward the door with a single, controlled motion. “Go ahead, my girl, but be back before the next dawn. You know how patrol gets about people being out during the day.” A brief pause. “Stay far from the trails.”

I wondered what patrol actually looked like here.

Were they the kind I imagined, knights in gilded armor, blades drawn and gleaming with purpose? Or was it closer to the armies I knew back home? Either way, everything about this place leaned into ancient. The architecture. The air. The way even their clothing moved, fluid, deliberate, like it had been designed with intention instead of function. There was an elegance to it. Nothing felt accidental. Not even Valentina.

She had blended into the human world far too easily, but even there, in leather, she had never looked like she belonged to it. She wore everything like it had been made for her. Like she had been placed, not born.

She smiled up at her father, her hand shifting to rest lightly on his shoulder. But fear beneath it betrayed her. “Before I go,” she said softly, “I should tell you—Head Maiden Elaine saw Alex when we arrived.” Her voice dropped further, almost fragile. “We can’t risk any of the servants talking. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

For the first time since I’d met her, her composure slipped. Her brows pulled together beneath the veil. Her lips trembled, just enough to notice. And I felt it. That thread between us tightened, sharp and undeniable. It called to me. Every time her emotions flared, it did. I had to fight the urge to reach for her, my fingers twitching at my side before I forced them still.

“I’ll take care of Elaine,” Lord Corpus said, his voice steady. Certain. He noticed it too—the shift in her. With a gentle motion, he tilted her chin upward, guiding her gaze back to his. “Elaine has earned my trust over the years,” he said. “And I’ve earned hers.”

A pause.

“She will not be a threat.” His voice softened, just slightly. “Do you understand?”

Valentina’s voice dipped as a shy smile replaced her sorrow. “I do,” she sighed. I caught the defeat in her expression just for a moment before she continued, “I’ll be back before dawn. I had Head Maiden prepare dinner, she’d make a fuss if I didn’t come back for it.”

The lightness that usually graced her presence returned as she spoke of Elaine. I could tell she had some kind of affection for the maiden. It felt like it went beyond servitude. It was my best theory, a girl without a mother would need guidance. If it happened to come in the form of someone dressing her out of obligation… did it matter any less?

My gaze drifted over the arch of her back as her toes lifted, her body tipping forward to wrap an arm around her father’s neck. The laces threading through the deep oval cut of her spine were… distracting. I hadn’t noticed them in the carriage, or even on our walk up.

But now…

She was wrapped in another man’s arms.