"Thank the stars I'm on house arrest..."
Though no one said it aloud, the treatment was clear: they regarded her like a nuisance, a cockroach skittering where it didn't belong.
...Which, in some ways, she supposed she was.
Every step forward had been met with a fresh catastrophe. Her grand plans for seduction and survival now lay in shambles beneath the weight of misunderstandings and meddling male leads.
She felt... utterly powerless.
And in truth, she was.
Her Natal Affinity didn't grant her strength, speed, or any physical prowess worth boasting. And with Saphora absent, she had no access to Zodiacal mimicry either. No borrowed brilliance, no divine backup.
It was night now. Verena lay sprawled on the unfamiliar bed, fingers idly grazing the fabric as her gaze fixated on the ceiling. The dim moonlight filtered through the curtains in soft silver beams, but offered no comfort.
