"The hardest part of wearing a mask isn't putting it on. It's remembering to take it off."
***
The rhythmic clatter of hooves on stone created a steady beat as we left behind the only home this body had ever known.
A gilded prison that had shaped the original Kaelen into the coward I now pretended to be.
Each hoofbeat marked distance. Each rotation of the wheels put another yard between me and the watching eyes of servants. The carriage swayed gently as we navigated a curve in the drive. The suspension creaked in protest.
I felt something loosening in my chest. Tension I hadn't realized I'd been carrying since the moment I'd first opened these eyes and found myself trapped in Kaelen Leone's pathetic life.
It was like removing a corset that had been laced too tight for months. That first desperate gasp of air when constraints finally released their grip.
