The same night, Daniel couldn’t hold it in anymore.

The palace felt like a prison after the investigator’s call. Every corridor, every gilded painting, every echo of footsteps reminded him of the walls closing in. He paced his chambers for nearly an hour, mind racing, heart pounding so hard he could feel it in his throat. Raine was back. Alive. In that same small apartment where everything between them had started and ended. The thought wouldn’t leave him alone. It clawed at him until he couldn’t sit still.

He grabbed his keys and a plain black jacket, slipping out through one of the lesser used side entrances of the palace....