I knew that expression. I knew it because she'd given it to me for two solid years of cold shoulders and deliberate cruelty, and I knew it wasn't warmth — it was the face she wore when she was being careful. But Tahir wouldn't know that. From where he was standing, he'd see what he wanted to see.
When the dance ended, Ada returned to Sarp. He took her hand. And then, in the golden light of three hundred lanterns, he leaned down and kissed her.
Gentle. Soft. The kind of kiss a good man gives a woman he's been courting with patience and honesty.
Ada didn't pull away.
Something inside me went quiet. The silence before an earthquake.
I turned and walked into the dark.
Under my gloves, I could feel the cold starting to spread from my palms.
I left because if I stayed one more second, I didn't know what the shadows would do. That was the truth I couldn't say out loud — not that I'd lose control, but that I genuinely didn't know. Two weeks of trying to understand them and they still felt like weather, like something that happened around me rather than something I did. I walked through the courtyard, past the Academy gates, into the Borderland Forest where the trees grew thick and the air turned cool enough to breathe.
At least out here, if something went wrong, there was no one to see it.
That was when I heard voices on the path ahead.
I drew back into the tree line without thinking — instinct, the reflexes of a boy raised to be invisible. The shadows came without my asking, flattening against my skin like they'd done it a thousand times, dampening my presence in a way that still made my breath catch every time it happened. I hadn't told them to do that. I hadn't even known they could.
"— couldn't have been easier." Tahir's laugh, low and confident. "One dance and she practically melted. The princess is starving for attention. Father was right — with the scholarship mutt out of the picture and that fool Sarp playing lapdog, she's completely exposed."
I pressed my back against the trunk. Didn't breathe.
"Serkan's timeline?" A second voice — younger, nasal. Emre's son. I didn’t remember his name, but he always hung out with Tahir.
"Six months. Maybe less, depending on how fast the old god deteriorates. Gün Ata's getting weaker by the day. Once he's gone, Ada inherits — and Ada is a girl who thinks mercy is a governing philosophy. She'll need a husband with real authority."
"And that someone is you?"
"Who else? I've got the bloodline, the connections, Serkan's backing. All I need is access." Another laugh. "And access to the princess is easier than you'd think. She's lonely. Desperate. Did you see her tonight? Pathetic. A few dances, a bit of attention, and she'd spread her —"
My fingers dug into the bark until it crumbled.
Under the gloves, something was happening. Cold pooling in the cup of my palms. A pressure pushing out from my fingertips like a word demanding to be spoken. I hadn't felt it this strong before — not at this intensity, not threatening to come through fabric and leather and sheer will all at once. I pressed my hands flat against the tree and held them there.
Not yet. Not with a witness. Wait. Think.
Emre's son said something I didn't catch. Then footsteps — two sets diverging.
"See you at the council session tomorrow," Tahir called.
One set of footsteps faded north. The other continued east, deeper into the forest. Alone.
I counted to sixty. Then I followed.
Tahir took the long path home — the scenic route through the oldest part of the forest, where oaks formed a canopy so thick the moonlight barely reached the ground. He walked with his hands in his pockets, whistling, as though nothing had ever lurked between the trees.I kept my distance. Let five minutes pass until the sounds of the ball faded entirely. Then I stepped out in front of him.
"Evening, Tahir."
He stopped. Blinked. The moonlight caught his face — handsome, composed, that practiced smile assembling itself.
"Hakan. Didn't expect to see you out here." His eyes swept me once. "Leaving the ball early?"
"Something like that." I didn't move from the center of the path. "Lovely ball. I particularly enjoyed watching you dance with Ada."
Something flickered behind his eyes. "The princess was gracious enough to accept."
