The palace had started to feel like a pretty cage with velvet bars. I could walk the corridors without anyone daring to meet my eyes anymore, not after the king's verdict handed us thirty days of borrowed breathing room and then slammed the door on any hope of easy answers. The bond roared through me now, a constant golden hum that tasted like honey and lightning, Nalia's scent woven into every breath I took. It should have felt like victory. Instead it felt like being tied to ten other heartbeats, ten other hungers, ten other men who all wanted the same impossible thing: him, all to themselves, and somehow all at once.
I hated how much I loved it.
