Lorelei

The nights became my secret.

During the days, I worked with Calista—learning the endless protocols of a queen I never asked to be, signing documents I barely understood, enduring the subtle cruelties of a court that still saw me as an intruder. Calista was efficient, cold, and thoroughly uninterested in my wellbeing, but she taught me what I needed to survive. How to walk into a room like I belonged there. How to speak without apologizing for my existence. How to smile when every ...