The music had softened to a gentle hum, the kind that coaxed guests into lingering conversations instead of dancing. Servants moved like shadows through the hall, collecting silver platters and refilling crystal goblets.
Elara kept her steps steady, her hands sure, her expression calm. To anyone watching, she was just another maid. She needed to be just another maid.
But she could feel it — the faint prickle of awareness, as though someone's gaze followed her from one side of the room to the other.
When she glanced up, she found the Queen's eyes upon her.
It was not a long look. Barely a heartbeat. The Queen's attention shifted away to a baroness mid-sentence, her smile unchanged. But the moment lingered.
Why… me?
She busied herself arranging fresh goblets at the Duke's table, careful not to draw attention. Across the hall, Prince Kael spoke with the King and two foreign envoys, his face unreadable. His gaze did not find hers again, but the memory of his earlier words — Stay alert — remained like a thread wound too tightly in her chest.
Lady Miren passed behind her, offering a subtle nod of approval for her work, nothing more. No whispered warnings, no cryptic instructions tonight.
The rest of the evening passed without incident, yet Elara felt as though she'd been walking along the edge of a cliff — each step precise, each breath measured.
And when the final guests began to leave, she realized she hadn't once looked toward the chandelier. She didn't need to. The memory of its weight above her was enough.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if the story — the one she was never meant to affect — was already shifting again.