-Caspian Grayson:
The next morning didn't feel like a continuation of the wedding at all.
It felt like the world had reset itself overnight, carefully erasing the chaos, the laughter, the music, and the way people had clung to each other beneath floating lanterns as if nothing outside that night mattered. Now everything was quiet again. Controlled. Predictable.
The estate had returned to its usual rhythm, and so had I.
I was in my office when Dad came in.
My home office was one of the few places in the house that always felt completely mine. Tall shelves lined every wall, filled with books that carried everything from ancient magical theory to binding spells that had been outlawed in three kingdoms and quietly ignored in ours. The air always smelled faintly like ink and old parchment, mixed with something subtly metallic from residual spellwork woven into the wooden structure itself.
