[Luna]
The last few days had been… strange.
There was a time, years ago now, when I’d wanted Nikolai gone. I’d hoped, secretly and shamefully, that I could birth a son to replace him as heir to the family. A son of my own blood, not just my husband’s bastard from some woman he wasn’t even married to.
But over time, that wish had faded into something distant and bitter. Because Nicolo and I were unable to have another child, let alone birth an heir.
Two miscarriages. That’s what it had taken to break something fundamental between us.
After the second one, after the blood and the pain and the hollow, terrible silence that followed—my husband stopped coming to my bed. He only sought me out when the effects of his curse suddenly flared, when he needed my help handling whatever dark magic
