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I could feel my mouth dropping open, but no words came out.

“We’ll do our jobs. But that’s it. That’s all I’ll give you.”

My anger kicked off again. Sure, Lukas thought I left without a word. But he was the one who made me leave. I just saved us both from him having to lie to me again. “You know, I was hoping you’d say that.” And because I needed the last word, especially since my stomach was still fluttering with images of him naked, I added, “See you in the morning?”

As I walked past him, placing myself closer to him than I had a right to, Lukas wrapped a hand around my arm. He leaned down close. “Probably not. I have meetings. But we have dinner.”

I looked up at him. Something I was used to, seeing as he had about seven inches of height on me. “Figured. With you or…”

“The whole court.”

Great.

My chin tilted up a little, pulled in by the heat of his body. “Sounds lovely,” I said through gritted teeth. “See you then, Lukas.”

I wasn’t even invited to his meetings anymore.Thatwas something I’d address in the morning. No way I was getting left out of those.

I pulled myself from his grip and walked back through the stables. I checked on June, who was busy sniffing August.

I understood it. I’d had the urge more than once to wrap myself around Lukas and bury my nose in his neck.

Once she was settled, I forced myself to go to my room. To either see the desolate wasteland or eerie snapshot in time that awaited me. I hadn’t even been using it much in those final weeks, but it was stillmine.

I took the shortcut to our rooms, only coming across two guards who I nodded politely to.

When I saw that deep oak door to my room, I almost lost my nerve. But I pushed through, laying my hand on the brass knob and opening.

Eerie snapshot it was. The room looked exactly the same. Large furniture. Touches of rich, ocean green and dark wood. And my things, in the very place I’d left them.

My bag was resting on the floor at the foot of the bed, so small compared to the grandeur of the room. I dropped into a chair by the door and let myself take in the rest of the space.

The large windows out to a balcony that connected Lukas and I’s rooms. The collection of seashells I started on my second visit. My vanity in the corner. With Lukas’s chair next to it.

“I need to get ready, Luke,” I said, twisting out of his arms. He thought he could physically keep me from leaving.

“You need to eat breakfast,” he protested. “And we need to talk about the wedding.”

So many details to finalize. Even though it was feeling like a day that didn’t even belong to us. Not that it should, we weren’t—

“Fine,” I said, cutting off my thoughts. “Bring my coffee and you can sit in the chair next to my vanity. Two birds with one stone.”

It became a habit, eating breakfast and talking while I got ready, Lukas next to me the whole time.

Something harsh spurned in my chest. As much as the palace felt like home, this room had lost its appeal. Because there was a different room I’d started to think of as mine.

Until I was reminded thatfriendsdon’t sleep in the same bed.

Chapter 5

Daphne

Lukas could get a new door. Wood wasn’t that expensive, and we all knew that he had more money than he knew what to do with.

He could get a new fucking door because I was about to break it down if he didn’t open it in the next five seconds.

Since waking up from a restless sleep, I’d grown increasingly annoyed throughout the morning.

First, I tried to do more research into the imagery we’d talked about at dinner, to see if there was some other explanation to the maiden iconography. Anything that distanced it from Hera or Juno. Because if a god was involved that wasnotgood.