Valerie’s POV:
The time had come. I *needed* to see my father.
Torches flickered along the stone hallway, their uneven light clawing at the walls like restless spirits. My shadow stretched and twisted behind me as I moved, a silent specter in the wake of my own coronation. The celebration still raged somewhere in the distance—drunken laughter, clinking glasses, the occasional burst of music—but here, the air was thick with silence.
I reached my chambers and paused, casting a glance over my shoulder.
*No one was following me. Good.*
The door groaned as I shoved it open, the sound swallowed by the heavy tapestries lining the walls. I stepped inside, letting it creak shut behind me. My coronation gown, still warm from the ceremony, slid to the floor in a heap of silk and gold with s
