ZARIA'S POV
The palace was completely loud. Even all the way up in my bedroom, tucked away in the residential wing of the estate, I could feel the low, steady thrum of the music vibrating through the heavy stone floorboards. The air outside my windows was thick with the rich, mouth-watering smells of roasted meat, heavy winter spices, and burning pine wood drifting up from the massive kitchen hearths in the courtyards below. The grand banquet for the Eastern Alliance was finally here, and the entire palace had spent the last twenty-four hours turning into a chaotic mess of frantic preparation.
Inside my room, Camilla was practically running in circles around me. She had been twisting, pinning, and re-pinning my hair for the last forty-five minutes, her brow furrowed in absolute concentra
