Niko shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, his expression set in its usual mask of mild irritation. The buzz of students filling the Oxford campus felt like static in his ears—background noise to be ignored. People were a pain in his ass, and today was no exception.

"Mate, you look like you're walking into a battlefield," Jeremy Chen commented, shoving a hand through his already-messy hair. "You sure you're ready to be back?"

"Not really," Niko muttered, his sharp gaze sweeping the crowd with disinterest. Oxford hadn’t changed. Same people, same suffocating social circles, same meaningless conversations. If anything, the only difference was that his tolerance for it had run even thinner over the summer.

Unlike Jeremy, who had a way of charming the entire female population with nothing more than a lazy grin, Niko had never so much as glanced at a woman longer than necessary. Not because he was too shy. Not because he thought he was too good for them. But because every single time he tried, all he could do was compare them to her.

The one person he couldn't forget.

His childhood sweetheart. The princess of Eldorra.

And as if his thoughts had conjured her into existence, there she was.

Standing just a few feet away, looking like a goddamn dream in the middle of the bustling crowd.

Niko felt his body go rigid, his mind going blank in a way it never had before. For a man who prided himself on being unaffected by most things, this was an unfamiliar sensation.

"Well, I’ll be damned," Jeremy whistled lowly. "Looks like the princess has decided to grace us commoners with her presence."

Niko barely heard him.

His heart wasn't supposed to be racing. His hands weren't supposed to itch to reach for her. And yet, all he could do was stare.

Because for the first time in years, she wasn’t just a memory.

She was here. At Oxford.

And suddenly, everything felt different.