The evening had settled into the comfortable rhythm of high-society mingling when chaos decided to make an entrance.
It started with a commotion at the main doors—not the respectful silence that had greeted Archduke Astoria, but the kind of confused murmuring that happened when protocol went out the window. Guards were speaking in hushed, urgent tones to someone just outside the hall, their voices carrying an undertone of "this really isn't how these things work."
I had just finished greeting the Archduke when the doors burst open.
Four figures strode into the banquet hall like they owned the place, completely ignoring the scandalized expressions of the doormen who had clearly failed to stop them. They moved with the confident ease of people accustomed to going wherever they pleased, regardless of invitations or propriety.
My glass paused halfway to my lips as recognition hit me like a thunderbolt.
