It’s now a dance meant for two, and as the melody hums through the gilded hall, your eyes find hers.

Aglaea stands across the room, yet her gaze doesn’t linger on your brother that was the man she’s meant to marry.

It instead settles on you.

She is not merely a duchess tonight, not the woman bound by royal expectations. She is the longing between breaths, the silent promise of what could never be, yet what you both know has always been.

You feel the tug, and before your mind has a chance to protest, your feet are moving. She, too, seems to know the moment.

With one fluid motion, she steps closer. Her hand reaches out, not to her ‘duke’, but to you, her princess, fingers that only grazed yours and yours only.

She speaks, her voice a whisper beneath the music’s swell. "I could never be his," she says softly, but the words hold more weight than any proclamation of the court. "But you... You were always the one I sought."

Her fingers curl around yours, pulling you into the dance as if there were no one else in the world.

In her gaze, you saw it all—the shared yearning that cannot be quenched by anyone but her.