Chapter 6

I do not stay in my quarters to mourn. I do not hide under warm furs, nursing the hollow ache in my chest, or weep over the shattered remnants of a future that was never truly mine.

That is what they expect me to do. They expect me to break, to lock myself away in shame until the grief humbles me enough to crawl back to Kaelen’s feet and beg for his forgiveness.

But I am Celeste Hart. I do not break.

The next morning, long before the first pale sliver of the sun even breaches the dark horizon, I…