On the outside, I was a queen.
My back didn’t bend. My chin didn’t waver. My lips, painted in that deep, dangerous plum, parted just enough to look unbothered.
Unreachable.
My eyes didn’t dart. My heels didn’t hesitate. I walked as if I had carved the marble myself and told it where to lie.
Like the walls had been built to echo my footsteps.
Like the silence had been curated to showcase my entrance.
Like every head that turned was obeying some invisible command I’d given just by existing.
Even the air seemed to slow for me.
But it was all performance.
A perfectly constructed illusion draped over tension. I wore confidence like armor and power like perfume, hoping neither would crack beneath the pressure of what I was about to walk into.
Because I hoped to God that queens weren’t born.
I prayed that they were crafted.
And during this war, I would be studying the skills and hopefully passing the tests.
But on the inside?
I was a knot.
My stomach twisted into tight and tangled wires. My breathing was too shallow.
Still my heels were clicking, my hips swaying, and my breasts bouncing.
I didn’t know if I was pulling this off or just pretending, and maybe that was the whole point.
Pretend long enough, and the crown becomes yours.
I reached the long corridor.
It looked different in daylight.
Last night, it had been a tunnel carved through shadow. Now, afternoon light spilled through the arched windows, washing the stone floors in warmth and gold.
This wasn’t just a hallway.
It was a map of Kenji’s mind.
I passed the first closed door, his office. Next, I went by my writing room.
I still can’t believe that with everything going on. . .he thought of me and made sure I had a space to write.
It was a carved-out position in the center of his kingdom for my voice. My work. My dreams. It was mine. But now I saw more than just his affection. I saw hisstrategytoo. Because on this corridor, there were only three doors—his office, my writing room, and the war room.
That was it.
He had placed mebetweenthe two halves of his world—between his power and his violence. Between the mind of the Dragon and the blood of the battlefield.
He’d made sure I was in the middle of everything.
