Twenty minutes before moonrise, Nora came to change my dressings and asked exactly what we'd agreed.

"Are you still going?"

"Yes."

She glanced at the wheelchair by the wall. "I'll come back in ten minutes. With the recorder."

The door closed behind her.

I was alon

The hall stayed silent after Adrian's command failed.

He looked at me as if my stillness had betrayed him. It hadn't. My body had simply stopped obeying.

I rested my wrists on the wheelchair arms. The red restraint marks were bright enough to see from the

The royal medic opened the bottle the next morning.

Not me. Not Nora. Not Cassian.

The court recorder photographed the seal and batch number first, then watched the medic break it. I sat in the east guest suite with my legs elevated and tried not to hate how much