Esther’s POV
Rain came early that morning, as if the sky couldn’t stand the weight of my silence anymore.
It washed the palace roofs, turned the gardens into mirrors, and ran like veins through the cobblestones. Inside my chest, it echoed perfectly, a steady, empty rhythm where purpose used to live.
Three days had passed since the wedding that wasn’t.
Kevin had returned to Blue Lake to “manage the damage.” I hadn’t heard from him since.
And Nicholas? He’d gone quiet again, the kind of quiet that means movement in the shadows, like a wolf crouched before a strike.
Dan found me in the infirmary, sleeves rolled up, trying to lose myself in paperwork that didn’t need doing.
“You look like you haven’t slept,” he said, setting a steaming mug beside me.
“I haven’t,” I replied flatly.
He
