Keigh had been standing near one of the tall windows, pretending to listen to a conversation he didn't care about. His mind was elsewhere, heavy with what the night was supposed to become.
His parents had been circling him all evening, whispering reminders.
"Smile."
"Stand next to Fiona when the announcement begins."
"You owe this family loyalty."
He felt suffocated. He had already made up his mind to decline the arranged marriage after the event, but he knew the blowback would be volcanic. Tonight would not be peaceful.
And then it happened. He turned his head lazily, wearily and froze. Nara had arrived. For a moment, he genuinely thought he imagined her.
The lighting clung to her gown like liquid wine, each step creating a ripple of satin. Her skin glowed warmly against the red fabric, and the open back of her dress revealed a softness he had never seen on her before. Her hair framed her face in waves that made her look almost unreal, almost too beautiful to be standing in a room full of people who didn't deserve to look at her.
But it wasn't the dress, it wasn't the glamour. It was what she did to him. His entire chest loosened.
Like everything that had been tightening around him all week suddenly released its grip. Like he could breathe.
She moved through the crowd with polite nods, poised but somehow out of place among all the glittering excess. She didn't belong in a room built on ego and old money.
But he couldn't look away. His eyes traced her, not with hunger, not with shock,but with the kind of softness a man felt when he saw something he never expected to see again. Hope.
Every step she took toward the center of the room felt like a slow pull on a thread tied directly to him. She wasn't supposed to be here, not in this world, not in the chaos he was about to ignite, but she was and his heart reacted before his head could catch up.
He felt himself move, not walking so much as gravitating toward her. Her eyes lifted, found him and held him, and in that silent moment, something passed between them. Recognition, relief, something dangerously close to longing.
He didn't care who watched, not Fiona, not her parents, not his parents, damn, not even the entire hall.
All he knew was that seeing her here tonight, of all nights, made the decision he'd been struggling with feel painfully, effortlessly clear. He could never marry someone chosen for him.
Not when looking at Nara felt like the first honest thing in his life. He moved through the crowd, straight toward her.