*Kaelen*
My mother sweeps me away. She doesn’t release my arm until we’re well beyond the main corridor, past the servants’ stairs and into one of the smaller galleries that overlooks the inner courtyard. This space is all marble and echo—designed to be impressive, not private.
She wants me visible. She wants me aware of that.
“You were staring,” Mother says, smoothing a nonexistent wrinkle from her sleeve.
I stiffen. “Staring?”
She stops walking and turns, her expression cool and composed. “Don’t insult me, Kaelen. I watched you long before you realized you were being watched.”
Heat creeps up my spine. “It was nothing.”
“Nothing does not disrupt your focus,” she replies. “Nothing does not make you forget where you are.”
I fold my arms. “She’s a servant.”
My mother’s lips curve f
