Chapter 8

The palace feels louder without him. Not in sound—if anything, the corridors outside my tower are quieter—but in the way every whisper seems to lean toward the same absence. No footsteps with that clipped, unhurried rhythm. No sudden flare of torches announcing his approach. No cold, dark gaze catching mine across a room and pinning me like an insect. For three days, Emperor Kian has been gone to the border. For three days, my golden cage has been… ownerless. “You should eat, my lady.”...