Why did they make eye contact?!
Was it the dress? The one she stole straight from Agrona's wardrobe?
Or maybe it was her eyes, too human to pass as anything else?
Her scent?
Her fear?
No. No, no, no. Never mind that!
She just had to act natural. Blend in. Walk away through the sea of nobles and pretend she belonged here. Easy.
Except it wasn't. The crowd pressed in from every side, perfumed laughter and silken sleeves suffocating her as her head spun. Of all the floors to be caught on, why the third floor?
The oxygen was too heavy, the noise too loud. It was chaos masquerading as celebration.
Of course, it was a major event. The grand return of the Crown Prince. Every noble, even the minor ones, had been summoned to attend.
Which meant that it was likely the parents of Cressida were here too.
All she could think about was escaping.
Her legs moved on their own, every step heavier than the last. Faces blurred into a haze of perfume and chatter as her body slipped between nobles like a ghost desperate to vanish.
Before she realized it, she had stumbled past a corridor and was shoved hard into a room.
The doors shut behind her.
It was enormous. Light spilled across marble floors, and the space stretched farther than she expected, split into another section beyond the grand curtains.
"...Daimon."
Cressida froze, crouching instinctively as her pulse thundered in her ears. Slowly, she peeked up from behind the curtain.
There, in the golden light of the chandeliers, stood a girl pressed against a taller man's chest.
The scene before her was heartbreakingly familiar, straight from the novel's earliest chapters.
║[SYSTEM] Event Triggered — "Threads of Fate: The First Encounter."║
║Warning: You are witnessing one of the most crucial moments of the current event.║
"You just have to endure a little longer," the man's voice murmured. "Agrona still holds too much power."
"But you promised…" the girl replied softly, her words trembling with equal parts hope and fear.
Curiosity prickled through Cressida. Against her better judgment, she crawled toward the nearby table and slowly raised her head just enough to peek over it.
The man was striking.
Tall and ethereal, the kind of beauty that felt carved rather than born. His hair, a shade of black so deep it almost became blue under the chandelier light, and a face that could belong to a painting, cold, perfect, and mournful. His eyes, crimson dulled by centuries, carried a fatigue that no rest could heal.
The heroine before him was much the same. Soft honey-blonde curls, pale skin flushed like dawn, and eyes so bright they seemed to reflect every emotion at once.
If Cressida had to guess, this was her: the heroine.
Up close, she was even more radiant than she had imagined. The novel's words hadn't done her justice.
Before she could blink, the two drew closer and kissed.
She ducked down immediately, face burning.
It should have been romantic. But it wasn't.
It was an affair, an act of rebellion more than love.
Daimon, the eternal crown prince, had borne his crown for centuries, a vampire shackled to the same throne, the same wife, the same hollow eternity. And Agrona was a tyrant in silk, a woman who had long since turned their union into a gilded cage.
Perhaps that was why, when he looked at the girl, he saw freedom.A sin disguised as salvation.
But none of that justified anything.
If anything, Daimon was just a coward, one of those people too scared of hurting anyone that they ended up hurting everyone instead.
Cressida had seen that type before.
The kind who couldn't choose, couldn't face the truth, and still convinced themselves they were doing the right thing. The kind who fooled two people at once, maybe even themselves.
She hated that.
"Quick, we must leave now. We've lingered too long, someone might notice," the girl whispered.
Cressida immediately ducked under a nearby desk, pressing herself against the shadows.
The sound of hurried footsteps followed, then silence.
When she finally peeked out, the room was empty, door locked from the outside.
"Great," she muttered under her breath. "Just my luck."