Chapter 21

• KNOX
• I kneel there in the moonlit clearing, holding the ring that cost more than most nobles see in a lifetime, watching Aubrey's face cycle through shock, disbelief, and something that might be panic. The emerald catches the starlight, sending green fire dancing across the moss-covered ground between us, but her expression remains frozen in that same stunned silence.
• I didn't expect her disdain for me to be even more intense than the public indifference she's shown these past weeks. Every interaction we've had has been laced with barely concealed hostility, every conversation ending with her fleeing from my presence like I'm some sort of plague carrier. But tonight, when I found her talking to a crow—a fucking crow—declaring her hatred for me, the words hit like a physical blow.