Adeline’s POV
The palace rose over me, grand but unwelcoming, a silence pressing like wool against my ribs, its towers cutting the sky into jagged teeth. I stopped at the gates, breath hitching as my eyes skimmed walls I had never crossed.
Once, long ago, Vincent had promised we would rule together. He'd painted a life: a home beside him, children running beneath the same roof. Promises are paper in fire. He burned ours, and I had been left to gather the ash of a life that no longer felt mine.
That, however, wasn’t why I stood here.
I wasn’t hunting the ghosts of vows or coming to face the man who had betrayed me. I had one purpose only. Myra.
I adjusted the black mask covering the lower half of my face and pushed my sunglasses higher on my nose. My reflection in the polished gates lo
