5.

Ronnie’s were

The sun poured through the tall windows like liquid gold, but its warmth did nothing for the chill that clung to my skin.

I sat at a long dining table, so polished I could see my reflection staring back at me from the wood. Platters of food stretched between us, fresh bread, roasted meats, bowls of fruit, but the sight only made my stomach twist tighter.

Damon sat at the head of the table, masked as always. That dark, gleaming thing hid every trace of his face, leaving only the piercing weight of his eyes upon me. He didn’t speak. He hadn’t spoken since I arrived.

The scrape of my fork against the plate echoed too loudly in the silence. My throat was dry, every bite sticking as though my body refused to accept food in his presence.

I could feel his gaze, heavy and suffocating, even when he wasn’t looking directly at me. As though he was waiting for me to break.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Why?” My voice came out quieter than I intended, but it still shattered the silence.

Damon stilled. The knife in his hand paused above the slice of meat he’d been cutting. Slowly, his head turned toward me.

I swallowed, gripping the edge of my plate for courage. “Why… why did you choose me?” My voice faltered, but I forced it steady. “You could have had anyone, anyone better. My sister, Clarissa, is beautiful and graceful. She’s everything the nobles expect in a queen. Why me? An omega?”

The air thickened, pressing in on me from all sides.

For a long, suffocating moment, he said nothing. Just the sound of his knife resuming its steady cut, the slice of metal against plate.

“You are asking questions you do not need answered,” he said at last, his voice deep, cold, resonating with command.

The words hit me harder than a slap. My hands curled into fists on my lap. “But,”

“Enough.” His tone was sharp, final. He didn’t raise his voice; he didn’t need to. Authority clung to each syllable, silencing me more effectively than a shout ever could.

I lowered my gaze to the food I couldn’t bring myself to eat. The distance between us seemed endless, though the table was only a few feet wide.

My chest ached with unspoken questions. Was I nothing more than a pawn? A punishment? Did he despise me as much as the court did?

But Damon went on eating, unbothered by the storm he had left raging inside me. Every movement of his hands was precise, practiced, like even mealtime was a performance of control.

I stabbed at the fruit on my plate, my appetite gone. The silence pressed harder, suffocating, until I wanted to scream just to hear my own voice.

I couldn’t bring myself to.

So I sat in silence, a shadow across from a king who wore a mask, who refused to see me beyond the title he had thrust upon me.

And in that moment, with his presence looming over me, I realized the truth with a cold certainty:

It wasn’t the nobles who would destroy me.

It was him.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. After the meal, Damon dismissed me without another word, as though I were nothing more than a piece of furniture cluttering his table.

I returned to my chamber, but the silence there was worse than his presence. My thoughts ran in frantic circles, chasing questions with no answers. Why me? Why the mask? Why did his voice carry such weight that it seemed to press into my very bones?

By evening, I wandered into one of the palace’s side corridors, searching for air, for space, for anything that didn’t smell of suffocating perfume or polished stone. My slippered feet carried me toward the kitchens, where the scent of baked bread and roasted herbs drifted through the hall.

I hadn’t meant to linger, but voices stopped me in my tracks.

“…did you see the way she looked at him this morning?”

“Of course I did. Poor thing, doesn’t she know?”

A pause, then hushed laughter. I pressed myself into the shadows, ears straining.

“The mask,” one whispered, her voice trembling with thrill. “They say it hides more than his face.”

“What do you mean?” another asked, though her tone suggested she already knew.

“The curse,” the first maid murmured. “The Alpha isn’t just king of Cistern Palace, he’s the King of Shadows. They say the Goddess cursed his bloodline. His true face isn’t meant for mortal eyes.”

My breath caught in my throat.

“Some say he wears the mask to contain it,” the other added, her voice dropping lower still. “That beneath it, he carries the mark of death itself. To look upon it is to invite ruin.”

A third scoffed, though nervously. “Superstitions. If it were true, the council would never allow him to rule.”

“They allow it because they fear him,” came the reply. “Fear keeps the crown on his head. And now, fear keeps that poor girl, his so-called queen, at his side.”

The words struck me harder than I wanted to admit. Poor girl. Was that how they saw me? A victim tethered to a man cloaked in shadows?

My pulse quickened, heart thundering in my chest. The curse. The mask. The King of Shadows.

Footsteps scuffed against the floor and I slipped away before the maids could see me, skirts gathered in my fists. I didn’t stop until I reached the solitude of my chamber.

The moment the door shut, I pressed my back against it, breath shallow. My mind replayed their whispers over and over.

A curse. His true face hidden. The mask is not a choice, but a necessity.

Suddenly, the memory of his presence at breakfast, the way silence clung to him, the way his words seemed to chill the air, took on a different shape. It wasn’t just cruelty, was it? It was something else. Something darker.

I sank onto the bed, hands trembling against the silken sheets. Every part of me wanted to dismiss it as gossip, the way McKenzie’s friends used to spin tales to frighten children. But something in me knew better.

There was truth in the servants’ fear.

And if Damon’s mask was the key to it… I had to know.

I clenched my jaw, the fragile ember of defiance flickering back to life inside me.

If he thought I would remain silent, a puppet in silk, he was wrong.

I had spent my whole life enduring cruelty, swallowing my voice, surviving in silence. But this palace was different. This mask, this curse, it was bigger than me.

And if I was to survive here, I needed to understand the man behind the shadows.

I needed to uncover the truth.