Camila's POV
I didn't sleep.
I watched him instead.
Nathaniel.
Breathing slowly beside me, like he wasn't the monster buried under velvet and vows.
So I got up.
I walked to the window and stared out at the cold night air, remembering the way the council used to whisper when I entered a room. The way Aiden flinched when he saw me in that dress. The way Sasha kept smiling like she hadn't stolen an entire empire.
And I thought:
No. More. Waiting.
The Next Morning,
I wore black again.
Cassie helped me with the armor. Not literal steel. Not yet.
But the leather corset lined with gold plates. The layered cloak of my house's forgotten sigil. The ring that once belonged to my father. The boots laced tight like war drums.
"You look…" Cassie paused.
"Like I'm done playing."
We left before dawn.
Cassie. Me. Four of the fighters I'd recruited from the Eastern Rebellion's ghost army, men and women who had nothing left to lose and knew what it meant to be betrayed.
