You hadn't meant for it to go this way.

Your plan was simple: draw his attention by staging a kidnapping. Lure him away from Soleia. Plant a false threat. Reveal yourself as the solution. Earn his trust. And maybe… maybe win his heart. Before the timeline unfolded and Dekalb was born.

But nothing ever went as planned with King Euredian.

Because now you were the one tied up—metaphorically—in the heart of his war room, sitting across from him at a table of carved obsidian, his red eyes narrowed with patient, terrifying calm.

“So,” Euredian said, voice like molten steel. “You faked a kidnapping. Hired two low-born mercenaries. Smuggled yourself into my lands. And all to get my attention?”