Bound to The Enemy of My Mate
The air thrummed with whispered politics and the cloying scent of night-blooming jasmine, a perfume that did nothing to mask the sharper scent of fear and ambition.
At the far end, on a dais under a canopy of sapphire silk, sat the King. He looked older than Elira remembered, his kindness etched with new lines of weariness, but his eyes lit when they landed on Kael. Beside him, the Queen was a statue of frost, her smile carved from ice. And to her right, standing as if the hall were already hers, was Ilyana.