Chapter 29: The Masquerade Begins
The ballroom pulsed like a living thing.
Music shimmered through the gold-lit halls, its rhythm slow and sharp — a predator's lullaby.
Masks sparkled in every direction: feathers, gold, blood-red lace. The whole court had drowned itself in illusion.
All except one.
Nyra stood at the top of the grand staircase.
Unmasked.
Unmoved.
Unmistakable.
Gasps whispered through the crowd like leaves catching fire.
The scar on her cheek gleamed beneath the chandeliers.
But it wasn't what they noticed.
It was the way she wore it.
Like a crown.
---
Bryant stood by the edge of the ballroom, hands clenched behind his back.
Every noble moved aside as she descended. No title announced her name. No trumpets welcomed her. But she needed none.
She was no longer the dungeon girl.
She was the storm they'd all tried to lock away.
And now she danced.
Not with him.
But with a masked figure in black — tall, poised, steps elegant and precise.
Too precise.
> "Who is that?" Bryant asked quietly.
The guard at his side didn't know.
And that was exactly the problem.
---
Across the room, Damon sipped dark wine and let the chaos bloom around him.
He'd arranged for a slip in the floor plan.
A disruption in the lights.
A shift in the music.
Just enough to confuse — to let him move through the dancers like shadow through silk.
He wore a half-mask carved from obsidian, and no one noticed when he slid closer to the Queen's circle.
> Tonight, he would whisper truths into the wrong ears
And make Nyra look like the one who burned it all down.
But something was wrong.
The man dancing with her…
He moved like he'd been here before.
---
Nyra let herself be led.
The stranger said nothing.
Just offered his hand, and she had taken it.
Because the silence felt familiar.
Because the grip felt known.
Because the pain it stirred wasn't fear.
It was a memory.
And when the music stopped—
He stepped closer.
And whispered just loud enough for her to hear:
> "You still tilt your head before you lie."
Her entire body went still.
Only one person had ever said that to her.
And he'd vanished five years ago.
> "Lucien," she breathed.
But when she looked up—
He was gone.
---
[End of Chapter 29]