Hilda's POV
I paced back and forth in my room, my nails digging into my palms as anger boiled inside me. My chest heaved with every breath I took, and my mind was spinning with frustration. Malakai would never see me as anything more than a shadow as long as Camilla was around. It had always been her in his eyes. No matter how many hints I dropped, how much time I spent close to him, or how many times I made myself available to him, he never looked at me the way he looked at her.
I had grown up watching him gaze at her, longing for her, treating her like she was some delicate, unreachable treasure. And it made me furious. What did Camilla have that I didn’t? I was just as strong and just as smart—maybe even more so, because I understood the world and its harsh realities. I wasn’t a lost
