For the briefest, most excruciatingly hopeful moment, I swore I saw something flicker in him. Recognition and shock. His jaw clenched, and his grip on the throne's armrest shifted.
But then, he looked away.
Unbothered.
Like I was no one.
He turned his head as if nothing had happened, as if our eyes had never met, as if the girl in silver across the room was just another masked body blending into the crowd.
I didn't even realize I'd stopped breathing until my chest started to ache.
I blinked.
Once. Twice.
But he didn't look back.
I curled my fingers around the delicate stem of the glass I'd been holding. I wasn't sure if it was the lighting or my eyes, but everything shimmered wrong.
What did I think would happen? That I'd show up in a dress and a mask, and he would fall to his kn
