Julian
I couldn't sleep.
I lay on the bed in the guest quarters, freshly bathed, the events of the evening still buzzing through my veins like wine that refused to wear off. The candle on the bedside table threw a wavering circle of light across the ceiling, and I stared at it, letting my mind unspool.
Jennifer's proposition circled through my thoughts on a relentless loop. Seduce Rosamund. Let the Duke catch both of you. Destroy her reputation, dissolve the marriage and, in exchange, details about Elowen, who was alive and safe waiting for me somewhere beyond the Duke's reach.
The rational part of me knew I should be strategising, weighing the risks, calculating the outcomes, planning the next three moves the way I'd been trained at Greymarch, but my mind kept drifting to places it had no business going.
