Emilia's POV
I could still feel his presence long after he left but I couldn't bring myself to move. I just stood there, clutching the blanket to my chest like it was armor. My breaths came shallow and uneven, the air in the room feeling too thick, too heavy with his lingering presence.
‘Then I’ll just have to teach you what it truly means to be mine.’
His words replayed in my head, over and over, until they became a pulse, throbbing with every beat of my heart. A shiver ran down my spine. Fear, yes—but not only fear. Something darker and more dangerous twisted beneath it.
Resolve.
I wasn’t going to let him break me. Not like the others. Not like all those women who had been whispered about, who had come before me only to die in his arms. If I couldn’t run—if the chains of this palace
