After Alden left with orders on his lips and my heart in my throat, the room felt too small.I sat on the bed, staring at the closed door, trying to reconcile two worlds in my skull.In one, I was Aria—the omega servant, the girl who scrubbed floors and took beatings and signed nothing because no one thought her worth the ink.In the other, I was Lyris Aria Mooncrest—the burnt name on a file, the ghost in a portrait, the flare in four men’s chests.Some part of me wanted to curl into a ball and wait for someone else to decide which one survived.The rest knew that was how I’d died last time.***Alden came back that evening.No entourage. No trumpets. Just a knock and then the door swinging open because princes didn’t have to wait for permission.He stepped in, closed it behind him, and leaned back against the wood for a moment, as if he, too, needed a breath before this conversation.I stood automatically, hands knotting in the hem of the tunic Ida had foisted on me.“Your Highness,”
Last Updated : 2025-12-17 Read more