#Chapter 160 – Vanishing Politely

Lila The library should have felt safe. But the tall shelves rose like sentinels, stacked high with volumes standing guard. My feet had taken me here. Not to read, my head was too foggy for that, but to be somewhere quiet, far from the council chamber or the royal wing or Damon. The guards followed anyway, of course. I could hear them posted just inside the doors, their hushed voices a constant reminder that even here, I wasn’t alone. I wandered between the aisles, fingertips trailing along spines worn with age and use. It was something better to focus on than the gnawing noise in my head. That, I couldn’t escape: the nobles’ gossip, Damon’s lies, Ruby’s perpetual absence. Every thought wound back to the same conclusion, and every time I landed on it, my chest ached sharper. He’s never going to let me go. The truth settled heavy inside me. Whatever hope I’d clung to of being free had rotted. The palace wasn’t a home. It was a cage, and I was too weak to break down the do