KAI:
The quarters are larger than Kai expected.
A sitting room with comfortable furniture and tall windows overlooking the gardens. Two bedrooms on opposite sides of the main space. A small dining area. A private bathing chamber. It is luxurious and it is a prison.
This is where Kai will live with Liam while maintaining the lie.
The first night is awkward beyond measure.
Servants bring Kai's belongings and arrange them in the east bedroom. Liam is nowhere to be found. His bedroom door is closed. His presence is felt only through absence.
Kai eats dinner alone in the sitting room. He practices Elena's handwriting. He reads letters his sister wrote to the man across the corridor.
By midnight, Kai is exhausted but sleep feels impossible.
He lies in the unfamiliar bed wearing Elena's nightgown and thinks about the contract he signed. About the conspiracy he does not understand. About the man he married who might be his enemy.
Morning comes with Liam entering the sitting room dressed for meetings.
"We take breakfast together," Liam says without preamble. "Servants watch. If we do not appear domestic, people will talk."
"Understood," Kai says.
They sit across from each other at a small table while servants pour tea and arrange food. Neither of them speaks. The silence is heavy and loaded with the weight of secrets between them.
"You will have a tutor," Liam says finally. "Someone who will teach you about our customs. Our politics. The people you will encounter."
"Sophie already offered to help," Kai says.
Liam's jaw tightens slightly.
"Sophie is my cousin and she is trustworthy," Liam says. "But be careful how much you rely on her. She is too clever by half and she loves drama."
"She seems competent," Kai observes.
"She is," Liam agrees. "That is what makes her dangerous."
They finish breakfast in silence.
Over the next three days, a routine develops.
They share morning tea because servants expect it. They appear together at court functions because optics matter. They maintain distance otherwise because too much proximity invites questions.
But there are small moments that slip through the carefully constructed walls.
On the second morning, Kai has a nightmare about Elena. He wakes screaming and before he can control it, Liam is there in his doorway with a blade drawn and eyes alert for threats.
When he realizes the danger is only internal, something softens in his expression.
"You should take sleeping medication," Liam says, not unkindly. "The suppressants can cause nightmares. I have something that helps."
He does not offer it. Just leaves the information there like a gift neither of them knows how to accept.
On the third day, Kai is studying in the sitting room when Liam comes home early from meetings. He sees Kai reading Elena's letters and his entire body goes rigid.
"Those are private," Liam says sharply.
"Your parents gave them to me to study," Kai responds. "I need to understand her voice. Her thoughts. Her perspective."
Liam stands very still. Then he sits across from Kai and asks quietly, "What does she say about me?"
Kai reads the passage aloud. The one where Elena wonders what Liam is hiding. The one where she offers him a path out of isolation.
When Kai finishes, Liam's eyes are wet.
He does not say anything. He just stands and retreats to his bedroom.
That night, Kai hears him pacing for hours.
The fourth morning, Sophie arrives to begin formal lessons.
She teaches Kai the names of noble families and their allegiances. She explains the hierarchy of the court. She warns him about who to avoid and who might become useful.
"Lord Marcus is suspicious," Sophie says. "He keeps watching the palace staff. He keeps asking questions about the princess. He is looking for something."
"What?" Kai asks.
"He does not know yet," Sophie says. "But he suspects something is off. My guess is he has some kind of spy network. He is gathering information."
Kai's hands clench into fists.
"How much time do we have?" he asks.
Sophie looks uncomfortable.
"I do not know," she admits. "Maybe weeks. Maybe days. He is not the type to move slowly, but he also will not act without solid evidence. Right now he just has suspicions."
That night, Kai tells Liam what Sophie said.
"I know about Marcus," Liam responds. "I have known for years that he suspects something. I just did not know what."
"And now?"
"Now I do not know if he suspects I am Omega or if he suspects something about the princess," Liam says. "Either way, it means we are running out of time."
He looks at Kai with something that might be regret.
"The banquet is in three days," Liam says. "It is where all the nobility will meet you at once. It is the most important public appearance of your time here. And it is where the first real tests will come."
"What kind of tests?" Kai asks, though he already knows the answer is danger.
"The kind that will determine whether you survive or whether everything collapses," Liam says simply.
He stands and moves toward his bedroom, then pauses.
"Try to get some sleep," Liam says. "You will need your strength."
Kai lies awake all night thinking about the banquet. About nobility who will be watching for weakness. About Victoria who will be looking for blood. About Lord Marcus who is gathering information about who they really are.
And most of all, Kai thinks about the man sleeping in the room across the hall. The man who is supposed to be his enemy but who took a blade to defend him. The man who is just as trapped and just as broken as Kai is.
The question is whether they can survive together or whether their secrets will destroy them both.
The answer, Kai knows, is coming in three days.