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I let out something in between a scoff and a chuckle. Rose had a unique way of spinning situations into a positive.

I re-racked my sword, letting that signal the end of our sparring instead of admitting my ass was starting to hurt from landing on the floor too many times.

“Lukas?” Rose asked, with almost imperceptible hesitation.

I didn’t turn around, keeping my eyes on the rack in front of me. “Yeah?”

“You did this for me once, so I feel like I have a responsibility to do it for you.”

I stayed silent, if not to hide the groan building in my throat.

“Give Daphne the benefit of the doubt.”

That made me turn, crossing my arms over my chest as I did so. “Why?”

Rose shook her head slightly, looking like she was searching for the right words. “I’m sure she has an explanation.”

I dragged a hand down my face. “I’m sure she does. But whatever it is, it doesn’t excuse what she did.”

Rose was hurt, left to deal with Dominic’s grumpy ass by her best friend. But words couldn’t describe how deep Daphne’s betrayal ran.

Leaving me to deal with all this shit alone, with zero explanation, knowing how my brother’s abdication affected me was something I’d never fully understand.

Wasn’t sure I wanted to.

Because I was pretty sure the answer started and ended with her not caring about me half as much as I cared about her.

“To use your own advice, Lukas,” Rose said, not backing down from the defense of her friend. “Talk to her.”

I nodded, appeasing Rose’s questioning eyes. I was planning on talking to Daphne. Over dinner, in fact.

Just not about her disappearance. Even if I wanted to know, that paled in importance to whatever the fuck happened to rip a hole in a thousand-year-old barrier of magic.

≈

My mood hadn’t improved a lick since the morning training session. It was supposed to be the thing that re-centered me. It had worked for the past year.

But no, not today.

The whites of my knuckles were showing as I gripped the back of a chair so hard I could hear the faint sound of the wood groaning under my touch.

A year ago, I’d probably kissed the ground at the feet of whoever told me I didn’t have to go to a court dinner. To just have dinner with Daphne instead. Throw another friend or my mother in there if you wanted, so long as it was confined to people I loved.

But now, I was debating subjecting myself to that torture to avoid having to sit in a room with Daphne at my side. Feeling the static heat of her knee, inches away from mine. Smelling that sweet scented perfume floating off her skin and restraining the urge to bury my nose in her neck.

Daphne walked in a second later. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew I was thinking about her and wanted to call me out on it.

She stopped short when she saw it was just me. “Oh.”

“Canceled dinner,” I explained. We were in the formal dining room, which I rarely used outside of court events. But I didn’t want to have this conversation in our private one.

Daphne nodded, walking over to me. “Okay.”

Warning signs blared in my head. Daphne wasn’t one to mince words.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to listen to Rose and give her the benefit of the doubt for leaving. Not yet anyway.

Daphne stopped short a healthy distance away from me. She was looking at me like she expected me to start speaking, but I stayed silent. There were too many things that needed to be discussed, too much to unpack.