The note arrived with no escort.
No courier.
No wax seal.
Just a piece of black parchment, folded four times and delivered to Selene's personal desk by an anonymous hand.
That alone was enough to unsettle her.
Because no one bypassed her guards.
No one reached her directly.
Not without help from the inside.
And Selene was quickly learning that betrayal did not come from across the ocean.
It came from across the hall.
She read the note in silence.
The ink shimmered faintly, not from design, but from magic.
Marrow script.
Encrypted.
But she'd learned it in childhood.
Not by choice.
By necessity.
Back when survival had required knowing every enemy tongue before she learned to speak her own.
The message was short.
"Your king met with the East. Not as an enemy. Not as a shield. But as a son."
"The blood you trust isn't yours. It's ours."
Selene folded the letter slowly, her hands still.
But her chest felt like it had been hollowed out with a hot blade.
She summoned no one.
Not Ingrid.
Not Elric.
Not even her spies.
Because this wasn't a matter for court.
This wasn't strategy.
This was personal.
And personal wounds bled the most.
Cassian was in the north wing, reviewing troop assignments when she found him.
The guards stepped back at her approach, not out of respect, but fear.
She said nothing as she entered.
He didn't look up.
"Something wrong?"
Selene placed the black parchment on the table between them.
"Read it."
He scanned it.
His expression didn't change.
But his grip on the edge of the table did.
"Took them longer than I expected," he murmured.
"So it's true?"
Cassian looked at her.
And said the one word that should've explained everything.
"Yes."
Silence.
Not the cold, calculating silence of politics.
A painful silence.
One that buzzed in her ears and threatened to break her open.
"You met with Marrow?"
"Years ago," he said.
"Before I even knew your name."
"And you didn't think to tell me?"
"It was buried. Erased. The Circle wasn't supposed to know."
"You were their asset."
"I was their experiment."
He stepped away from the table.
Rubbed a hand through his hair.
"Before I became king, I was a bastard with no allies. The only hand that reached out to me was Marrow's."
"And you took it?"
"What would you have done?"
Selene didn't answer.
Because she knew.
She would've taken it too.
But knowing didn't make it hurt less.
"You married me while still holding allegiance to the empire that wants us both dead?"
"I never gave them allegiance," Cassian snapped.
"They sponsored me. That's it. They trained me. Paid for my education. And when I became king… they wanted me to remember who helped me rise."
"And you did."
Cassian's voice lowered.
"I never acted on it. Never took their coin. Never passed your secrets."
"But they knew about me."
He hesitated.
"Yes."
Selene turned away, her jaw locked.
She stared at the stained-glass window behind his desk, a depiction of Veredon's first crown forged in the heart of a dying star.
Symbolic. Poetic.
And now, absurd.
Because the only thing forged in this room was lies.
"You made me look like a fool," she said.
"You made me trust you while you fed my enemies information."
"I didn't."
"You didn't stop them either."
Cassian stepped forward.
"Selene, they would've found out who you were eventually. Your blood. Your training. Your ties to the Circle. They have eyes everywhere."
"Then we should've burned them sooner."
"And risked war?"
She turned, fire in her eyes.
"War is already here!"
Cassian's voice dropped.
"I'm trying to fix this."
Selene approached him slowly.
Not as a wife.
Not as a queen.
As something colder.
"You don't fix betrayal with apologies. You fix it with action."
"Then tell me what to do."
She held up the letter again.
"Prove them wrong."
He blinked.
"How?"
"Burn the bridge."
"You mean?"
"Publicly denounce Marrow. Destroy every trade line. Recall every ambassador. And if they send another envoy."
She leaned closer, her voice cold.
"I want his head on a platter. With their crest burned into his flesh."
Cassian hesitated.
And in that second, that one second of doubt, Selene saw everything she needed to see.
He wasn't ready.
Not to fight them.
Not to kill them.
And she couldn't afford hesitation.
Not now.
Not when the Circle was already peeling her world apart.
She stepped back.
"I'll handle it."
"Selene."
"You've had your chance."
She didn't raise her voice.
She didn't cry.
She just walked away.
Like a queen.
Like an executioner who hadn't drawn her blade yet, but would.
That night, Selene drafted a royal decree.
By her hand alone.
Cassian's name appeared nowhere on it.
Effective immediately, all diplomatic ties with the Marrow Empire were dissolved.
All merchants with contracts were to be arrested.
All correspondence burned.
All sea routes sealed.
And any citizen caught harboring Marrow sympathizers?
Executed.
No trial.
No delay.
Elric brought the seal.
"Ingrid says this will start a war."
"It already started."
"And Cassian?"
"He made his move. Now I make mine."
The next morning, Selene stood on the balcony of the palace and read the decree aloud to the people.
No crown.
No guards.
Just flame behind her.
And silence below.
When she finished, no one cheered.
They didn't need to.
They obeyed.
Cassian didn't speak to her that day.
Not that week.
He remained king.
In name.
But every command passed through her now.
And everyone knew it.
Because he had played politics.
And Selene?
She had chosen survival.
In her private chamber, she lit a candle.
Watched the wax drip like blood.
Then opened her journal and wrote two lines at the top of a new page:
The first betrayal was love.
The second will be war.