The chandeliers of the Grand Hall floated like false stars, their golden flames flickering in a haze of perfume and laughter. Gilded nobles moved in practiced steps across polished marble, every movement a performance. Behind their feathered masks, they smiled and schemed.

Adele stood still at the edge of the dance floor, a porcelain figure in emerald satin, her corset biting deep beneath her ribs. The scent of orange blossom and rosewater clung to the folds of her dress - chosen, of course, by her stepmother. It wasn't about her comfort. It was about spectacle.

Her lips curled in a quiet grimace.

"Lady Adele," drawled Lord Ricard, appearing at her side with the ease of someone far too practiced in interruption. His fox mask glinted with rubies, the grin beneath it sharper than it needed to be. "Surely you're not standing alone by choice?"

She looked at him, expression smooth and unreadable. "Not entirely."Ricard chuckled as though she'd confessed something charming. He offered his hand. "Let me save you, then."

She took it with the grace drilled into her by years of forced decorum, and he swept her into the crowd just as the musicians began another court waltz. Around them, silks swirled and masks flashed. The nobles moved like clockwork, all precision and pageantry.

Ricard danced well - he was trained, clearly - but it was his mouth that exhausted her.

"You've heard of my family, I'm sure," he said, as if announcing something rare. "We're not royal, but very old. The House of Rellin goes back before the Second Compact. My mother is an elemental mage - air, mostly - but my magic skews toward the mind."

Adele nodded politely.

"I'm particularly good at remembering things. And persuasion. A dangerous combination, don't you think?"

"Dangerous indeed," she murmured.

He laughed, pleased with himself. "My father says I've the makings of a future court minister. And I agree, of course. I'm well-spoken, strategic, and with the right wife... politically indomitable."

Ah, there it was.

Ricard pulled her closer on the next turn, his grip firm on her waist. "I believe I could make a fine husband. Especially to someone like you. I would provide protection, status - perhaps even affection if you bore my sons."

Her jaw tightened."Your generosity is overwhelming," she said, voice cool.

He mistook it for flattery.

When the dance finally ended, Adele gave a curtsy so shallow it bordered on insult. Ricard bowed far too deeply in return, flashing teeth like a predator pleased with his prey.

"I'll call on your father tomorrow," he said. "And perhaps we can discuss futures."She didn't answer.

She turned away, stepping lightly out of the crush of bodies. Her lungs ached. Her feet throbbed. Her soul buzzed with the kind of exhaustion that came from smiling too long at things you wished would burn.

She made her way to the edge of the hall, past the columns shadowed in candlelight, where the music faded just enough to feel like silence.

And that's when she saw him.

He wasn't part of the glittering swirl. He hadn't danced. He stood apart - partially hidden in shadow near a tall arched window. His frame was lean, posture effortless. He wore deep black, simple but fine, and across the upper half of his face was a dragon mask made of smooth, dark leather.

Not gaudy. Not trying to impress.

Just? still.

And watching.

His gaze was fixed on her.

Not the way Ricard looked at her - measuring, assessing, appraising - but something quieter. Sharper. As if he were reading something only he could see.

Adele froze.

The space between them wasn't wide, but it felt like it stretched forever. The ballroom faded. The music blurred. Her breath slowed.

His eyes didn't move from hers.

There was no polite bow. No smirk. Just the silent recognition of one soul finding another across a battlefield of masks.

And in her chest, beneath the ache and weariness, something stirred. A warmth. A pulse. A feeling she couldn't name.

The man in the leather dragon mask tilted his head slightly, almost curiously.

And then, without a word, he turned and disappeared into the shadows beyond the pillars.

She stood there for a long moment, her heart still too fast, her breath too shallow.

Something had changed.

And from the rafters above the chandeliers, where spirit-light drifted in silence, something else had noticed.

Something that had been waiting.

The music swelled behind her, a crescendo of strings and laughter that pressed too close to Adele's ears. She stood quietly near the column, letting her fingers graze the carved marble as her heartbeat began to slow. Her chest still held the faint warmth from the man's gaze - the man with the simple dragon mask, now vanished like mist.

She exhaled softly and glanced back toward the dance floor. Everything had resumed. No one had noticed her absence. The nobles still twirled in flawless patterns, masks and magic swirling in tandem.

"Adele," came the smooth, familiar voice behind her. "You disappeared."

She flinched before she could hide it. Lord Ricard.

"I needed air," she said, quietly. Not a lie.

He stepped in close beside her, towering slightly in his high-collared crimson coat. His fox mask sparkled, his eyes gleaming beneath it. "Air?" he echoed. "Why, my dear, I thought I left you breathless."

She tried to laugh, but it sounded thin. Forced.

Ricard leaned on the column beside her, his voice a drawl. "You know, Lady Adele, I've been thinking. A girl like you - quiet, elegant, unburdened by petty magical ambition - would make an excellent wife. Gentle. Malleable."

Her spine stiffened, though her voice stayed low. "Malleable?"

He chuckled as if it were a compliment. "I could provide everything. Comfort. Protection. Perhaps even affection? after the children, of course. Two sons, and then we could talk about softer things."

She said nothing. The words stacked like stones on her chest.

Ricard barely paused. "And I've always had a fondness for green eyes. It would be a shame not to pass that along."

"I - " Her voice faltered.

She didn't finish. She turned away, murmuring, "Excuse me."

She didn't wait for his protest. Her slippers moved swiftly across the marble as she slipped through an open arch, ducking behind a velvet curtain and out onto the quiet stone balcony beyond.

The air hit her like a balm.

Cool. Real. Blessedly empty of perfume and pretense.

She pressed both hands to the stone railing, leaning forward and breathing in deeply. The courtyard below was bathed in moonlight. Enchanted lanterns floated over hedges carved into perfect spirals. Somewhere in the distance, a night bird called. No one answered.

For the first time that evening, she could truly breathe.

The corset still pinched, but the air helped. She blinked hard, willing the pressure behind her eyes to disappear. She wasn't going to cry. Not for Ricard. Not for her father. Not for this whole charade of a night.

Her fingertips brushed the stone.

And then - she felt it again.

Not a sound. Not magic.

Just... presence.

Her gaze shifted, and there he was.

He hadn't spoken. Hadn't announced himself. He was simply there, at the far end of the balcony, half hidden in shadow where the stone columns rose toward the open sky. The man in the dragon mask.

She froze.

He didn't move closer. He didn't speak. He just watched.

Adele's throat tightened. "You - " she began, but her voice faltered again. Too soft.

He tilted his head slightly, the smooth leather of his mask catching the moonlight. He wasn't smiling. He wasn't mocking her.

"You left the ballroom," he said quietly.

She nodded.

"I needed air," she said again, barely above a whisper.

"You looked like you couldn't breathe," he murmured.

The words weren't cruel. They were observant. Gentle.

"I can now," she said, not quite meeting his eyes.

Silence stretched between them. Not awkward. Just still.

"You don't like crowds," he said.

"I don't like being sold," she answered, surprising herself.

He stepped closer, slow and careful, like approaching something wild and wary. He stopped just far enough not to threaten, just close enough that the night air carried the faint scent of him - cedar and something older, deeper.

"You're not what they say," he said softly.

Her heart knocked once against her ribs.

"They say I'm useless," she replied, eyes fixed on the moonlit garden.

"They're wrong."

She finally looked at him.

The shadows of the balcony softened his face, but not his presence. He stood like someone carved from calm - no pretense, no polished court mask behind the leather.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"Because you are," he said. "Because something told me you'd be alone. And I didn't want you to be."

That broke something small and quiet inside her. She looked away again.

"I don't even know your name."

He paused. "Would you like to?"

"Yes."

He hesitated, then stepped just a little closer, moonlight spilling over his shoulder. "Alexander."

The name hit like a chord she hadn't known was playing.

"And you?" he asked gently.

"Adele."

He nodded once. "It suits you."

She opened her mouth to say something else - but a sudden voice called from the ballroom. Her stepmother, again, sharp and impatient.

Adele flinched.

When she turned back, Alexander was already stepping away.

But he paused at the edge of the balcony, looking back once.

"You don't have to smile," he said quietly. "Not with me."

Then he disappeared into the shadows.

Adele stood frozen beneath the moonlight, the air colder now but her chest warmer still.

She didn't smile.

She just breathed.

The air inside the ballroom grew heavier with each practiced step.

Adele walked toward Lord Corvan like a performer entering the final act of a long play. Her posture was flawless. Her expression serene. Inside, she was stone.

She curtsied deeply. "My lord. I'm honored."

Corvan turned, smiling with polished approval. "Lady Adele. You move like a whisper. I admire that."

"I've been taught well," she said gently.

"Clearly. I've been seeking balance for some time. A fourth wife requires a special kind of temperament."

"I understand."

He spoke at length - about control, expectations, obedience, his estates, his previous wives. She listened with perfect attention. Nodded at the right moments. Agreed with effortless poise.

She even smiled.

Though every part of her wanted to run.

And then -

A voice, calm but firm, broke through.

"Forgive me, Lord Corvan. Might I borrow the lady?"

The shift in Corvan's expression was immediate. He turned - and bowed, low and proper.

"Your Highness."

Adele's breath stilled.

She turned - and saw him.

Alexander. Dark-coat. Leather dragon mask. And suddenly, a prince.

She stared, stunned.

Alexander nodded politely at Corvan, then looked directly at her. His voice softened. "Lady Adele. Would you join me for a walk?"

She wanted to ask questions. She wanted to understand. But more than anything, she wanted to leave.

She curtsied once more, this time deeper. "Thank you, my lord," she said to Corvan, with a perfect farewell smile.

Then she took Alexander's offered hand.

He didn't speak until they passed through the archway, past the marble columns and heavy velvet curtains, and into the cool, quiet corridor.

Then farther still - until a side door opened and the night air washed over them.

The garden waited like a secret.

Stone paths wound through towering hedges and silver-touched trees. Glowing lanterns floated above rosebushes and moonflowers, casting gentle light across the pale petals. Somewhere, water trickled softly from a hidden fountain.

He led her through the open space until they reached a quiet clearing, bordered by marble benches and low ivy walls. Here, the music of the ballroom was a distant hum. Here, there were no eyes watching. No masks pressing in.

Only them.

Alexander released her hand as gently as he'd taken it.

"Better?" he asked.

She looked up at him. "Much."

He nodded once, then sat on the edge of the stone bench, not too close, not too far. Just? near.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," he said. "But you looked like you needed an excuse to leave."

"I did."

He glanced sideways at her, the faintest flicker of sadness in his expression. "I heard rumors about tonight. That you were being... presented."

"Paraded," she corrected, voice soft.

He hesitated. "I hoped it wasn't true."

She wrapped her arms lightly around herself, letting the breeze pull at her skirts. "It is."

He looked at her fully now. "That's why I'm sorry. Because it means I don't get to know you the ordinary way. Because everyone here is trying to own you before they see you."

She blinked at him. "And you're not?"

"No," he said simply. "I just wanted to talk to you again. That's all."

Adele sat slowly beside him.

"You're a prince," she said.

He smiled faintly. "Apparently."

"You didn't tell me."

"I didn't want to lead with power," he said. "I just wanted to know if I could be seen for something else."

She looked at him carefully. "That's what I want too."

He nodded, voice quiet. "Then maybe we can try? here. Just for a little while. No masks. No titles."

She looked out at the glowing flowers, at the stars just beginning to rise above the hedge line.

She didn't say yes.

But she didn't move away either.

And for a few rare minutes, she let herself feel like not a daughter, not a pawn, not a prospect.

Just a girl.

Just Adele.

The garden held its breath.

Moonlight filtered through the silver leaves. Lanterns floated lazily above flowerbeds blooming in soft whites and pale blues. Somewhere, a fountain murmured like a lullaby from another world.

Adele walked beside Alexander - no, not Alexander, not anymore - and felt the ground shift beneath her.

He had stopped just under the trellis of pale ivy, golden hair glinting faintly in the lanternlight, blue eyes steady on hers.

And then he said it.

"I used to go by Lukas."

Her world cracked.

Her steps faltered. Her hand slipped from his arm.

She stared at him. Really stared.

The golden hair. The blue eyes. The way he watched her - not like a stranger at a banquet, but like someone who had memorized the sound of her laugh years ago.

She pressed a hand to her chest.

"I - no. That's not possible."

He smiled gently. "You called me Lukas the Loud, remember? Because I always tripped over the garden roots."

Her breath hitched.

"You climbed trees barefoot," he added, "and you named every barn cat something ridiculous. Cheese... Pickle... what was the orange one?"

"Tamarind," she whispered, her voice breaking.

He nodded.

And the wall inside her - the one she had built since childhood, since he'd vanished without a goodbye, since the world decided she wasn't worth seeing - collapsed.

She gasped.

Then the tears came.

Not loud. Not dramatic.

Just silent, unrelenting, unstoppable.

Her face crumpled as years of loneliness and forced smiles fell away.

Lukas - her Lukas - was here.

Not a fantasy. Not a memory.

Real.

The boy who had once sat beside her under a willow tree, who had listened when she raged, who had never asked her to be someone she wasn't - he was real.

She turned her face away, ashamed to cry. "I'm sorry," she choked. "I just - "

He stepped in without hesitation and wrapped his arms around her.

Not like a courtier. Not like a prince.

But like someone who had always known how to hold her.

She trembled in his arms, pressing her forehead against his chest, the scent of him - cool earth and something sharp - bringing back summers she'd tried so hard to forget.

"I thought you were gone forever," she whispered.

"I thought I'd never see you again," he said softly. "They took me away that night. I didn't even get to leave you a note."

"I waited," she cried, voice raw. "I looked for you every summer. Every horse that came down the lane, I - I wanted it to be you."

He held her tighter.

"You were the only one who ever let me be myself," she said. "Everyone else wanted something. But you - "

"I just wanted to know you," he whispered.

She laughed through the tears. "You were so clumsy."

"I still am."

"I used to think about you when things got bad. When they told me I was worthless. When they punished me for being? me. I used to imagine you were still out there. Somewhere."

"I was."

They stood together for a long moment, the garden silent but for her soft, shaking breath.

Then, gently, she pulled back, eyes shining.

"Why did you change your name?"

"Because I had to," he said. "When the magic came, I was sent away. My family needed me to be something I wasn't ready to be. Lukas was... too human for them."

"And now?"

He smiled. "Now I want to be both. Prince Alexander for them. But Lukas, if you'll let me, for you."

Adele nodded slowly.

She reached up and touched his face - tracing the edge of the mask, then higher, brushing a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand.

"Then don't leave again," she said quietly. "Even if it's just for tonight."

He took her hand in his.

"I won't."

And for the first time in a decade, she didn't feel like she was pretending.

She felt safe.

She felt home.