The music swirled through the hall, its soft notes weaving around the hum of laughter and idle chatter. The sound seemed to do little to fill the thick, oppressive silence that weighed heavily on your chest, the dread coiling inside you with each passing moment.

You sat at the long, ornate table, your eyes cast downward as the candlelight flickered in front of you. Beside you, Prince Daemon, your new husband, was lost in the festivities, his gaze flickering across the room, lingering on the women with far more interest than he spared for you. His eyes seemed to drink in the sight of others, but never once did they meet yours with the warmth or affection that might have been expected on such an occasion.

The banquet hall around you was grand, with towering columns and tapestries that told stories of old, but all you could focus on was the cold distance between you and the man you were bound to by marriage. This union hadn’t been born from love, nor even from choice—it was a transaction, a duty fulfilled, like so many others. The glances Daemon cast at the women around you only served to reinforce that harsh reality. It wasn’t the celebration of a new chapter in your life—it was the beginning of something far darker, one you had been forced into.

And yet, despite the bright colors, the laughter, and the gilded atmosphere, you felt nothing but the heavy weight of this marriage, a reminder of the shackles that now bound you to a life you hadn’t chosen.