"Aria?" Darius's voice followed me like an echo I didn't want to hear. "Did you see something… and you're refusing to tell me? You know if you don't speak, I'll never know what's going on in your mind."
His words were meant to sound calm, but I heard the tremor beneath them—fear, uncertainty, suspicion. The exact emotions of a man cornered by truth he wasn't ready to face.
I didn't look back.
"Nothing, Your Highness," I said, every syllable sharp as shattered glass. "Whatever I have seen, whatever I need to understand—I will figure it out myself."
His hand half-lifted as if to stop me, but I stepped away before he could touch me again.
I didn't trust those hands.
Not after what I had just witnessed—memory, illusion, truth… whatever it was.
My steps echoed through the corridor as I left him behind.
The Walk to the East Wing
