Chapter 203: The First Physical Comfort

Lillian did not remember moving.

One moment she was standing in the conservatory corridor, surrounded by rare blooms arranged with ceremonial precision, and the next the air felt wrong. Too thick. Too sweet. A scent reached her that did not belong to the present.

Night jasmine.

Her vision narrowed. The world tilted, not violently, but with a slow certainty that made resistance useless. Her fingers brushed the edge of a marble table, seeking balance, and found none.

She inhaled sharply and the scent deepened.

Rain. Cold stone. Something metallic.

Her chest seized.

Nathaniel was across the room, reviewing messages with half his attention when he sensed the s