They were still drenched. Not just in water, but in the weight of the emotions they had been forced to confront, whether they wished to or not.
For Arabella, it was the raw, paralyzing fear of death. For Cassius, it was the chilling realization that her death would break him.
Arabella wasn't foolish. She was a commoner, an outsider to the world of those born and raised within these bloodstained castle walls. She lacked their cunning, their silent, ruthless games of power. But she wasn't blind. She had seen it through Marissa, and through every whispered scheme in the court of how being a royalty came with a burdensome responsibility that had become their leash.
She understood the cost of royalty.
And that price was survival.
