Lena's POV
The door opened.
I did not stand. I did not move. I had been sitting on this bed for hours, days, I did not know anymore. The light through the window changed and changed again. The sounds from the city rose and fell. The guards brought food I did not eat and water I did not drink.
Elara walked in.
She was alone. No guards. No Corvus. Just her. She closed the door behind her and stood there for a moment, looking at me.
I looked back at her.
She had changed. The crown was on her head. Her dress was fine. Her face was still. But there was something different about her. Something harder. Something steadier. The woman who had left me in this room was not the woman standing in front of me now.
She sat across from me. Not on the chair. On the floor. The same floor I had been sitting on. The same floor where she used to sit with me and laugh about nothing.
