The casual way he spoke of his brother's death unsettled her. There was no hesitation in it, no fracture in his voice, nothing she could recognize as grief. Still, Guinevere told herself he must be wearing a brave face for her sake. At least, she hoped that was all it was.
If her own brother had perished, she would have been inconsolable. But Gwen had seen enough of the galaxy to understand that every family mourned differently, and she knew enough of courtly politics to recognize that appearances were often carefully constructed illusions. What seemed cold might simply be contained. What felt wrong might be deliberate.
He offered her his arm.
The gesture should have been reassuring, proper, even romantic, but there was no warmth in it. No invitation. It felt instead like an obligation performed against his will, the bare minimum of courtesy demanded by rank and circumstance. She hesitated before accepting, confusion and unease twisting together in her chest.
They began to walk through the atrium. The air was rich with flowering scents, birdsong drifting from hidden gardens, sunlight catching in pale marble and glass. Yet Gwen saw none of it. Her attention was fixed entirely on him.
She noticed the strong line of his jaw, the quiet strength beneath the fabric of his shirt when her fingers brushed his arm. A faint, dusty rose bloomed across her porcelain cheeks despite herself. He was undeniably handsome, every bit the noble lord her parents had promised.
And yet… he was nothing like the heroes in her stories.
"Since the Fates—and our families—have seen fit to entwine our legacies," he said, his voice smooth but distant,
"I should like to know what lies beneath the polish. What occupies the mind of a Princess of Avalon when she is not being perfectly presented?"
The words were right. The tone was not.
To her own ears, his question carried no real curiosity. It sounded rehearsed, as though he were asking only because it was expected of him, because some internal obligation demanded it, not because he truly cared for the answer. Something about it rang hollow, and the unease in her chest deepened.
None of this felt right.
In her novels, a man would climb towers and slay dragons for the faint hope of a kiss. He would look at her as though she were something precious, something worth risking everything for. Lord Atria barely seemed inclined to look at her at all.
She knew reality rarely mirrored romance. She had been raised to understand that. Still… surely he must feel
something. Why else would he agree to marry her?
Then his words echoed back to her.
Our families.
The thought struck her so suddenly she nearly faltered. Was he trapped, too? Bound by duty in the same way she was? She had never heard of a man being bartered so easily, but she also knew that Epica prized balance and equity far more than Avalon did. If anything, men here were not afforded
more freedom.
The realization tightened her chest.
"You don't want this."
She stopped abruptly, her hand slipping from his arm as he took one more step forward before realizing she had stopped. The words left her mouth before fear could stop them. It wasn't a question. The truth was written plainly in the way he refused to meet her gaze, in the aloof chill he wrapped around himself like armor.
"You didn't choose to marry me, did you?"
Her voice was barely more than a whisper, and she was startled by her own boldness. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar privacy of this moment, alone, unguarded. Or perhaps it was the quiet disdain she felt radiating from him. Either way, she could feel her fairy-tale ending splintering, the last fragile hope she'd carried finally giving way.
Tears burned behind her eyes, but she refused to look down.
She held her head high and met him fully, needing to see his face, to understand who he truly was, now that the illusion she'd clung to was beginning to fall apart.