The weight of Seraphine's words hung in the air, pressing down on me like a leaden shroud. My mind raced, grappling with the reality of what she had just said. We were going back to her castle her domain where the complexities of demon politics, courtly expectations, and the looming title of Demon Queen awaited.
I tried to steady my breath, but my thoughts tumbled over one another, each more chaotic than the last.
I had left the human realm behind for a reason. Abdicating the throne had been my way of escaping a life that felt suffocating, a role that had never truly felt like mine. The endless responsibilities, the constant scrutiny, the weight of decisions that affected countless lives it had been too much.
The idea of ruling, of being at the center of everything, had terrified me. And yet, here I was, on the brink of stepping into that same role, just in a different realm.
