Josiah
Warning bells had been ringing in the back of my head for weeks, but I had learned to treat warnings as conveniences a man could afford only in peace. When the world was on fire, warnings were luxuries. You either walked toward the heat or you froze.
And so, I walked.
The wedding was a beacon, not just of joy, as the Fiato Kingdom had intended it to be, but of vulnerability. A kingdom’s heart laid bare beneath a thousand lanterns, every eye turned toward laughter and vows. That was the simple logic I built my plan on. When everyone looked one way, few watched the shadow at the edge of the light.
We arrived before noon, long before most of my men. The villa where Agatha had been banished lay a half-day’s ride from the eastern road, and I had left her there purposely: far enough t
