Cassius Valtier—only six years older than me, yet he moved through the world as though he'd witnessed the rise and fall of empires.

How many decades had shaped that calculating gaze?

The question burned on my tongue, unspoken.

Even after that night's revelations, he remained untouchable—a duke who commanded with the casual authority of birthright while I remained what I'd always been: a servant girl who'd wandered too close to secrets that weren't meant for my eyes.

Perhaps exhaustion had ...