Harper
Jessie's hand hung in the air between us.
Fiancée landed in my chest like a stone dropped from a height. Not a sharp pain. A dull, spreading pressure, the kind that finds every crack you forgot to seal and pushes through all of them at once.
She was still smiling. Waiting for me to take her hand.
Vane moved before I did.
He stepped in front of me. One arm came up at chest height, not touching me, just there, a half-raised barrier between my ribs and the woman in the chair. All I could see was his back. The line of his shoulders had gone wire-tight.
"She's not my fiancée."
Jessie's hand drew back. Slow. Her voice, when it came, was very quiet.
"Up until that night, I was."
Something inside my head pressed pause.
Valerius. Fiancée. Was.
I'd been matched to this man for a we
