By the time Selene and Josephine finally left, the sky had turned into deep shades of orange and violet. Inside the mansion, the servants were moving through the halls, their candles casting long, flickering shadows against the marble walls of the Solyne estate.
For the first time since waking up in this cursed novel, I felt... light.
I sat by my room's window, still in my afternoon gown. I stared at the God's painted canvas as a cool breeze hit my face, calming my nerves. With one hand supporting my face, my other hand had Selene's cream-colored invitation.
The silver MoonCrest seal caught the candlelight, and I found myself tracing the wax with a stupid, lingering smile.
A friend. She called me her freaking friend.
The word felt foreign yet gave me a sense of hope that I was too afraid to catch on. In my past life, friendship was a transaction. People stuck around because they needed something, and they left the moment you ran out of whatever they were looking for.
