Being Aegon was exhausting.

If you asked anyone, they’d say I had it all. Wealth, power, a last name that could open any door. My family owned the biggest corporation in the country—Targ Industries. The kind of company that made headlines just by existing. My father, Viserys, had built an empire. My mother, Alicent, was obsessed with keeping it intact. My siblings? Rhaenyra wanted control, Aemond wanted recognition, and Helaena… well, she was the only one who wasn’t actively plotting something.

And me? I was the disappointment. The infamous golden boy who partied too hard, drank too much, and spent more time with strangers in his bed than in lecture halls. That was the only thing people ever saw: Aegon, the mess. Aegon, the wasted potential. No one cared to ask why.

Honestly, I didn’t even know why. Maybe I was just wired wrong. Maybe I was sick of playing a game I’d already lost before I was even born. Or maybe I just liked the taste of self-destruction.

I hadn’t slept. Again. My brain felt like it had been stuffed with cotton and bad decisions. Walking through campus, I ignored the looks—some judgmental, some amused, some intrigued. I was used to it. People loved a good scandal.

I needed a cigarette. Maybe then my thoughts would slow down.

That’s when I saw her.

She was sitting alone on a bench, casually smoking, looking like she didn’t give a damn about the world. I knew her—well, not knew her, but I’d seen her before. A law student. A year ahead of me. Not popular, not invisible, just… there. Sometimes dressed so extravagantly that people whispered. Other times so casually that no one noticed her at all. I doubted she cared either way.

I sat down beside her without thinking.

“Got a cigarette?” My voice was rough, hoarse from lack of sleep and, well, life.

She exhaled a slow stream of smoke, glanced at me with the most unimpressed look I’d seen in a while, then silently held out the pack.

A woman of few words. I respected that.