I, Albert Reo, a man of honor, born into a wealthy noble house, heir to its legacy, am in love with a commoner.

  It is madness. It is ruin. It is a desire I should have turned away from the moment it was born. But how do I command my heart to be silent? How does one tell a soul not to yearn?

  I saw her only once. A fleeting moment, no more than a breath in the vastness of time. And yet, it was enough.

  Her eyes—oh, her eyes. Grey, but not dull like stone. They are the color of quiet rain, of silver moonlight spilling onto a restless sea. In them, I saw storms and serenity, unspoken questions and quiet knowing. There was a depth in them, a pull that seized something within me—something I had long thought unshakable. And I knew, even in that instant, that if I let myself fall, I would never surface again.

  Her black hair danced in the wind, wild and unbound, and in that moment, I envied the wind. I envied the sunlight that kissed her skin, the gentle breeze that toyed with the strands that framed her face. And her skin—so fair, untouched by the weight of the world—glowed as though she carried light within her.

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  But her smile—God help me, her smile.

  It stole the breath from my lungs, left my chest aching with a pain so sweet it frightened me. It was not a grand or practiced thing. It was a simple, effortless curve of her lips, as if joy itself had been born in her heart and spilled out in that single moment. Her cheeks lifted, soft and warm, and just there—a dimple, faint, almost shy, like it had no idea the power it held.

  And in that instant, my heart was no longer mine.

  I had known beauty before. I had walked through halls lined with paintings worth more than most men’s lives. I had been in the company of women adorned in silk and jewels, their laughter rehearsed, their glances trained to enchant. But none of them—none of them—had ever shaken the very foundations of my soul with something as simple as a smile.

  For one heartbeat, one breath, I felt the ground shift beneath me. And I knew that no matter how far I ran, no matter how I tried to chain myself to duty and honor, I would never forget that moment.

  Even if I never laid eyes on her again, she had already rewritten me.