Sleep eluded me that night.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her—Selene—standing in the garden with her knowing smile and silvery gaze. Her words replayed over and over, echoing in the hollow space of my chest: You cannot win against fate.
Damian had held me until the moon began to sink, whispering that she was wrong, that I was the one he wanted. But when dawn broke and I woke alone, the sheets beside me cool, the ache of doubt settled deeper.
He hadn’t said where he was going. He hadn’t needed to.
I wrapped a shawl around my shoulders and stepped into the corridor, the faint scent of smoke and pine lingering—a trace of him that made my heart twist. The halls were still quiet, servants moving like ghosts preparing for another day, pretending not to see the fractures beneath this hou
