Moments later,
Author
She walked away without looking back, her midnight gown trailing behind her like a banner of war, leaving the Crown Prince standing alone among the crystal and candlelight, his hand still raised as if to touch a ghost that had already vanished.
She did not return to her table. She did not wait for the banquet to end. She moved through the servants' corridors with the silent efficiency of her training, her masquerade mask discarded, her gold-crimson eyes burning in the darkness.
The palace blueprints she had memorized guided her through hidden passages, past guard rotations she had timed during the appetizer course, to a door that should have been guarded by twelve men and was instead guarded by twelve sleeping men—Scorpio's work, arranged hours before the banque
