The dagger lay untouched on the table.
Its obsidian edge gleamed in the candlelight, runes pulsing faintly as though alive. Aelia stared at it for a long time — longer than she should've.
She wasn't afraid.
She was done being afraid.
What burned through her now wasn't fear.
It was betrayal.
---
She stormed into Kael's chambers just after dusk, the doors slamming against the stone walls with a crack.
He stood by the window, silhouetted by the dark violet sky. His cloak hung from his shoulders like night itself, his silver circlet discarded on the desk beside him. He didn't turn when she entered.
"You brought me here," Aelia said, voice sharp. "You summoned me across realms. You chose me."
Silence.
She took a step forward. "Why?"
Still, nothing.
Her chest rose and fell unevenly. "You looked at me like I was the only light in your cursed world. You kissed me like it meant something."
His hands curled at his sides, but he didn't speak.
"I regret it," she said, louder now, shaking. "I regret kissing you. I should've known better than to trust a king who can't even tell the truth."
That struck something.
He turned — slowly — his face unreadable, cold as the stone beneath them.
But she wasn't finished.
"You've said nothing since that night. Nothing when they threatened me. Nothing when they tried to lock me away like some relic. Not even when they accused me of being her."
Her voice cracked, but she forced it steady.
"I'm not Lysara. And I'm not yours."
Kael's eyes flickered. For a second — just a second — they softened. But the moment passed.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low, flat. Distant.
"I never asked you to come."
She flinched. "But you let me stay."
"I needed the realm to survive."
"So I'm a solution. A symbol. Not a person?"
Kael didn't answer.
She stepped closer, fury in her breath. "Say something. Anything. Hate me. Deny me. But don't stand there and pretend this means nothing."
He looked away.
And that was worse than shouting.
Worse than anger.
He withdrew.
---
Aelia felt something in her chest splinter.
"You said the palace remembers," she whispered. "But maybe it's just reflecting you. Cold. Empty. Trapped in a past you won't let go of."
She waited.
But Kael — Azrik — stood like a statue.
The same man who had kissed her with trembling hands. Who had whispered that she made the palace breathe.
Now?
He was stone.
"I don't want to be here," she said, voice breaking. "I don't want to be in this realm. In this palace. In your shadow."
And still, he said nothing.
---
She turned.
Her footsteps echoed through the silence as she walked toward the door. Her hand paused on the handle.
"I came here thinking I was meant for something," she said without turning back. "But maybe I was just your mistake."
The door creaked.
And as it closed behind her, Kael exhaled — just once.
But he never called her back.
---
✧
Later that night, alone in her chamber, Aelia sat by the cold fireplace, hugging her knees.
The rose petals on her windowsill had wilted.
And the reflection in the broken mirror was no longer hers.
---