The conversation about leaving changed something between them.
Over the next few days, Selene watched Damian more carefully. Not with suspicion. With curiosity. Trying to understand the man who'd offered her freedom he knew she couldn't take.
She noticed things she'd missed before.
The way he worked late into every night. Exhausted but pushing through because the kingdom needed him. The candles in his study burning down to stubs, wax pooling on the desk. The way his shoulders hunched over documents by the third hour, tension building until he rolled them back with a grimace.
The way he spoke to servants with respect. Never raised his voice. Never used his authority to demean or control. She watched him thank a young kitchen boy for bringing tea, saw him ask a maid about her sick mother, noticed how he remembered names and faces that other nobles wouldn't bother learning.
