Darius' POV
I never thought the day would come when the sound of her name would sting more than her rejection.
Alera.
She stood in that hall like royalty, and not the broken little thing I once pitied. Her gown shimmered beneath the lights, her chin tilted in that familiar pride she wore when she still had her parents. But what struck me most was her eyes—they no longer begged. They didn’t plead or chase me across the room. No, they looked past me, like I no longer mattered. And that… that gutted me.
I should be happy.
I had Ivy.
I had the ceremony, the title, the alliance that everyone wanted me to secure. I was supposed to be winning.
But all I could think about was her.
Not the girl I threw away in my cowardice—but the woman she became without me.
I saw her hand in his. Kael. T
