Elara's POV
The guards lock me in Cassian's private chambers.
I pace like a caged animal. Outside, the palace burns. People scream. Steel clashes against steel.
And somewhere in that chaos, my mother and brother are hunting me.
I should be terrified. I should be planning escape routes.
Instead, I'm furious.
Furious at being locked away like a helpless damsel. Furious at Adrian for starting fires. Furious at Mother for escaping.
Furious at Cassian for making me care whether he lives or dies.
I press my ear to the door. Shouts echo from below. Smoke seeps under the doorframe.
The fire is spreading.
Let me out! I bang on the door. I can help!
The guards outside don't respond.
Minutes crawl by. The smoke gets thicker. The heat intensifies.
Then I hear it.
Footsteps in the hallway. Slow. Deliberate. Wrong.
General's orders, a voice says. No one enters.
I'm not here to enter. The second voice makes my blood freeze. I'm here to deliver a message.
Adrian.
My brother.
I back away from the door, searching for a weapon. Nothing. Just books and papers and
The window.
I run to it, yanking it open. Four stories up. No way down except falling.
The door explodes inward.
Adrian stands in the doorway, sword in hand, covered in soot and blood. He looks older. Crueler. Madness burns in his eyes.
Hello, sister, he says.
Behind him, the guards lie motionless on the floor. Dead or unconscious, I can't tell.
Adrian. I keep my voice steady. You don't have to do this.
Don't I? He steps inside, closing the door. You ruined everything. Our family. Our legacy. Mother's plans.
Mother's treason, you mean.
She was securing our future! His voice rises. The Empire was going to conquer us anyway. She made sure we'd be powerful when they did. But you had to find those letters. You had to ruin it.
She killed Damian. Our brother.
Damian was weak. Just like Father. Adrian circles me like a predator. You were always Father's favorite. The kind one. The healer. Everyone loved Princess Elara.
They loved a lie.
No. They loved you. His face twists with jealousy. And I was invisible. Second son. Never good enough. Never strong enough. So when Mother offered me a way to matter... He shrugs. I took it.
By framing me for murder.
By choosing the winning side. He raises his sword. Now I get to finish what we started five years ago.
I have nowhere to run. No weapon. No magic left after healing Cassian.
I'm going to die.
But I won't die begging.
Do it then, I say, lifting my chin. Kill me. Just like you killed our brother.
Adrian lunges.
I dodge left. His sword slams into the wall where my head was.
I grab a heavy book and throw it at his face. He stumbles back.
I run for the door.
He catches my hair, yanking me back. Pain explodes across my scalp. I elbow him in the ribs, twist free, stumble forward
The door crashes open.
Cassian stands there, covered in ash and blood, eyes blazing with fury.
Get away from her, he says. His voice is deadly quiet.
Adrian laughs. The conquering hero. Come to save the princess.
Last warning. Cassian's sword is already drawn. Step back.
Make me.
They clash.
Steel rings against steel. Adrian is fast, trained, desperate. But Cassian fights like a demon unleashed. Every strike calculated. Every movement lethal.
I press against the wall, watching them fight in the small space. Books scatter. Furniture breaks. Blood flies.
Adrian's getting pushed back. Losing ground.
Then he does something unexpected.
He throws his sword at me.
I barely dodge. The blade embeds in the wall inches from my head.
Cassian's attention flickers for just a second
Adrian tackles him. They crash through the window.
Glass explodes.
NO! I scream.
I run to the window. Four stories below, they're fighting on the narrow stone ledge, nothing but empty air and death behind them.
Cassian pins Adrian against the wall, sword at his throat. Yield.
Never. Adrian spits in his face.
Then he lets himself fall backward.
Off the ledge.
Into nothing.
Cassian grabs for him but misses.
Adrian's scream cuts off with a sickening thud.
Silence.
Cassian climbs back through the window, breathing hard. Blood drips from a cut on his forehead.
Is he I can't finish.
Dead. Cassian says it without emotion. He chose to jump rather than surrender.
I should feel something. Grief. Relief. Horror.
Instead, I feel nothing. Just empty.
Your mother escaped during the fire, Cassian says quietly. We lost her in the chaos. But we captured most of her loyalists.
She'll come back.
I know. He steps closer, studying my face. Are you hurt?
No. You?
I've had worse.
We stand there, surrounded by broken glass and blood, staring at each other.
You keep saving me, I say.
You saved me first. His gray eyes hold mine. We're even.
Are we?
Before he can answer, Darius appears in the doorway. General. The fires are contained. Casualties are being counted. And we found something in Queen Isadora's abandoned chambers.
He holds out a stack of letters.
Cassian takes them, scanning quickly. His expression darkens with each page.
What is it? I ask.
He hands me one letter.
It's addressed to Mother from an Empire general. Dated three weeks ago.
My blood runs cold as I read.
The weapon is ready. Once delivered to Valtheris's, the entire royal family will be eliminated within days. The throne will be yours, and our Empire will control the kingdom without firing a single shot.
What weapon? I whisper.
Cassian's jaw clenches. The plague in Lowtown. It's not natural.
The pieces click together.
The fever. The black veins. The way it spreads so fast.
She poisoned them, I breathe. My mother poisoned Lowtown. To create chaos. To make you bring in a healer.
To make me bring in you. Cassian's voice is grim. She knew you couldn't resist helping the sick. She used them as bait.
Nausea rises in my throat. All those people dying. Children. Families. Just to lure me out of hiding?
She's been planning this for weeks. Maybe longer. He reads another letter. And according to this, she has more of the poison. Enough to wipe out half the city.
Where?
That's what we need to find out. Cassian looks at me. She's going to use it as leverage. Trade the antidote for something she wants.
She wants me dead.
Yes. But she wants something else more. He holds up another letter this one sealed with the royal crest. She wants the throne back. And she's willing to kill thousands to get it.
The room spins.
My mother. The woman who gave birth to me. Who smiled at garden parties? Who ruled a kingdom?
She's a monster.
And she's still out there.
We have to stop her, I say.
We will. Cassian's voice is steel. But first, we need to secure the palace. Tend the wounded. Make sure
A servant bursts in, face white with terror.
General! Princess! You need to come to the throne room. Now.
What happened?
It's The servant swallows hard. It's better if you see it.
We run through the palace. Smoke still hangs in the air. Soldiers carry wounded. Servants douse lingering flames.
We reach the throne room.
And stop.
Someone has left a message.
Written in blood on the floor. Fresh. Still dripping.
Five words that make my heart stop:
THE PRINCESS DIES AT DAWN.
Cassian grabs my arm. What time is it?
Darius checks. Three hours until sunrise.
Lock down everything, Cassian orders. Triple the guards. No one enters or leaves without my permission.
But I'm not listening.
I'm staring at the message.
Because I recognize the handwriting.
It's not my mother's elegant script.
It's mine.
Someone copied my handwriting perfectly to write a death threat against myself.
And there's only one person who knew my handwriting that well.
My childhood tutor.
Sera.
The woman who pretended to be my friend for years.
The woman who testified against me at my trial.
The woman I thought was dead.
She's here, I whisper. Sera is in the palace.
Cassian goes very still. Who?
My lady-in-waiting. My false friend. I look at him. The one who betrayed me five years ago. She's alive. And she's working with my mother.
Find her, Cassian barks at Darius. Search every room. Every closet. Every
A scream cuts through the air.
Coming from the medical wing.
My medical wing.
We run.
The doors are open. Inside, chaos. Overturned supplies. Broken vials.
And sitting calmly in the center of the destruction, beautiful and smiling, is Sera.
She's holding a vial of clear liquid. The last vial of medicine I have for treating the plague.
Hello, Elara, she says sweetly. We need to talk.