The aftermath of National Founding Day lingered like the scent of expensive perfume—heady, unforgettable, and oddly suspicious. For Annabelle, it wasn't the fireworks or the flurry of gossip that clung to her memory. It was a single look across the ballroom.
The imperial celebration had been a parade of opulence. Gold-fringed chandeliers sparkled above a sea of nobles, laughter ringing out like wind chimes. But in the midst of it all, something shifted.
Crown Prince Cassian Sinclair arrived.
He didn't just walk into the ballroom—he commanded it. His presence rolled in like a winter storm, cold and undeniable. Nobles paused mid-sentence, casting admiring glances or shrinking back with wary awe. But Cassian didn't return their stares. He had already fixed his attention elsewhere.
On Elvianne.
She stood like a misplaced shadow behind Elara Voss, dressed in plain fabric and lowered eyes. A servant's role. A servant's posture. But something about her didn't fit.
Annabelle saw it too—the tension in Cassian's body as his gaze locked on Elvianne. It wasn't curiosity. It was recognition. The way his golden eyes narrowed told her everything.
There was magic in the air.
Cassian approached her, slow and silent like a blade being unsheathed. He leaned in just slightly and said, "There's something unusual about you."
Elvianne's breath hitched. For a second, something flickered—fear, perhaps, or shame. Cassian caught it instantly.
"You're hiding something," he added, voice low enough that only she could hear. "What is it?"
But Elvianne merely lowered her gaze, shrinking beneath Elara's presence as if silence could protect her. It didn't.
That night, Cassian didn't sleep. He ordered a quiet investigation—nothing official, nothing loud. Just enough to satisfy the gnawing unease in his chest.
And what he found made the unease worse.
Her background was incomplete. Her papers sparse. Her name—Elvianne Renar—didn't appear in any noble registries, and yet, she wasn't listed as a slave either. She was… misplaced.
Vanished from one life and dropped into another.
That kind of disappearance didn't happen naturally. Someone had hidden her. Erased her.
Cassian wasn't one to entertain coincidences.