At Moonbrew Café on Ninth Street, Raine St. Claire found herself seated before Will Steelmond. A third-year upperclassman: brown hair, brown eyes, a prideful and luminous look about him, and a black military overcoat draped across his shoulders.

The café was nearly empty, with only an elderly woman settled in with her duskbloom coffee and a book, her eyes never straying from the pages even between sips.

Raine had been served a virello, a coffee particular to Moonbrew, alongside biscuits she could barely tear her eyes away from.

Her sweet tooth was getting the better of her, but she held her ground, unwilling to yield. After all, she still knew very little about why Will had brought her here.

Will said nothing, only smiling and sipping his coffee from time to time. It was the sort of smile that made it seem as though Raine had every reason to relax and no reason not to enjoy herself.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Pushing her cravings down, she pulled her attention away from the tray and set it squarely on Will.

"Uhm..." she hesitated, weighing her thoughts.

"Why did you summon me, Calamity Will? I believe we haven’t met before."

Will set his cup down ever so gently, the movement carried with such elegance it almost seemed as though he held some affection for the coffee itself.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"I believe this meeting does not require small talk. I wish to establish a relationship between you and me."

Raine furrowed her brow. "A relationship?"

Will nodded gently.

"I saw you fight during your test, and I was intrigued. Your elegance, strength, and determination were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. That unyielding demeanor and those cold crimson eyes were merely a finishing touch."

With a slight tilt of his head, Will met Raine’s gaze, his brown eyes drifting softly into her piercing red ones.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"I would like to ask for your hand in marriage, Raine St. Claire."

A wicked smile tugged on his lips.

"I believe your family would need to align itself with a house such as mine... the Steelmond County."

The anger across Raine’s face wasn’t lost on Will, and as the words began to bottle up in her throat, he saw it coming and chose to stop her just before she could get them out.

"I’d suggest you think this through, Raine. My family has strong ties with the Divine Church of the Firstlight. We also donate a fortune to the church every month."

Those words were enough to make Raine reconsider, almost as though he knew precisely where to press. The Divine Church of the Firstlight was one of the twelve churches of the Firstlight Goddess, much like her own family’s church, the Church of Change.

Since the Church of Change was already in decline, aligning with one of the most prosperous churches would have an enormous impact. Securing a connection to the Steelmond family would almost certainly result in donations pouring into the Church of Change.

Her palms grew slick, and she balled them tight. Her entire fight, everything she had put herself through, was to restore her family’s honor by giving the Church of Change enough influence.

And yet, she frowned. She was equally resolved to make every person who had played a part in her family’s downfall answer for it, and the Divine Church of the Firstlight was no exception to that.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"I’m afraid I can’t. I’m already—

"Engaged?" Will finished her sentence for her.

Raine’s expression darkened as the realization set in. This man had run a background check on her.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"Engaged to Leomaris Runerth? Do you honestly believe associating your family with that name would benefit your reputation?"

Will reached into his coat and pulled out a local newspaper from San Paulette, Leomaris’s name printed in bold on the back page. Raine took it from him, saw that it traced back roughly five months, and immediately understood where this was heading.

"This newspaper was buried before it could even be published. The Duke made sure of that. But it doesn’t change what happened. Leomaris wreaked havoc in the Church of Hopes. And you still think tying your family to someone like that is a good idea?"

He leaned in slightly, and the clock ticked on, each second pulling his expression a little further toward wicked.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"He may be the son of a Duke, but once a family casts someone aside, they become nothing more than a disgrace waiting to ruin everyone tied to them."

Raine knew that much already. The only reason the Duke had agreed to the engagement, she was well aware, was because Leomaris was a lout who would most likely never amount to anything.

The engagement had been nothing more than a calculated move. A way to give the Runerth family’s scapegoat at least a name worth something since the Runerths, for whatever reason, had wanted an affiliation with one of the twelve churches.

’I know that much... but.’

Will leaned back in his seat.

"You’re overthinking this. This is the best opportunity you’ll ever get. The Runerth family dumped their scapegoat on your family because they never respected you in the first place."

He gestured toward himself proudly.

"I am the third son of the Steelmond family, yet I approached you personally and offered you this opportunity. If it’s status your family lacks, mine is more than willing to provide weekly donations to elevate your reputation."

Those words set Raine’s head buzzing for a moment. Will wasn’t lying, and what had seemed like an opportunity was, in truth, more of an insult to her family than anything else.

She sat with her thoughts for a moment, thinking far more deeply than she had expected, before a decision finally came to her.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

She got quietly to her feet, crimson eyes boring into Will’s brown ones with a sharpness that spoke of something newly found within her. The malice she gave off made Will quietly anxious for a second.

"Don’t you ever talk down on my fiancé."

Her tone turned deathly cold.

"You call yourself a noble? Mocking my fiancé while crawling after me behind his back? Pathetic. A man like you dares speak of nobility? I’d rather die than stain myself by being related to a family with no honor or manners."

The words left her lips, and she bowed slightly in respect.

Will sat with his mouth agape, watching in quiet awe as Raine excused herself and made her way out of the café.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

But the moment she stepped out, the self-reproach set in. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

She had made her decision to stand aside and let Leomaris’s enemies take him, and yet she had just spent the last few minutes defending him.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Once Leomaris was dead, her ties to the Runerth family would be severed completely.

Yet she had passed on the only truly beneficial opportunity she had ever come across that might have brought her family back to its feet without her having to spill blood.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Her emotions were tangled, and she felt less like herself and more like a puppet being moved by something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Her actions weren’t her own.

Walking down the street, she began to miss her maid already. The only one who had ever known how to keep her conflicted emotions from getting the better of her.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’Come on, Ren... where are you?’

As though the Goddess had sent a distraction to help bury her emotions, she noticed someone waving at her in the distance.

They cut through the crowd and narrowly swerved a moving carriage just to be spotted. It was Lucius.