Verity's POV

The garden was quiet, save for the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze and the distant murmur of the fountain. I'd come here seeking solitude, needing to feel something that didn't carry the burden of crowns and kingdoms and just stress.

I sat on a stone bench beneath an oak tree, my hands folded in my lap, trying to steady the storm inside me. The conversation with Cassian still echoed in my mind—his honesty, his pain, the way he'd let me go even as it destroyed ...