Chapter 13: The Queen's Gambit

The Moon Court Palace had never felt more like a gilded cage. As Kaleb and I walked through the towering, obsidian gates, the weight of a thousand hostile gazes pressed down on us. The air was thick with the cloying scent of bloodwine and cold, calculating ambition. Whispers slithered through the crowd of assembled nobles, a symphony of disdain and morbid curiosity. They saw a disgraced Countess and her beast, walking to their doom. I held my head high, my back straight in my gown of deep amethyst,...