Elara's POV
What are you?
Cassian's voice cuts through the room like a blade.
My hands are still glowing. Golden-red light pours from my palms into his curse wound. The magic burns through me, hot and wild and completely visible.
I just exposed myself.
I'm dead.
Let go, he rasps, trying to push my hands away. Stop
Shut up, I snap. Unless you want to die in the next five minutes.
He goes still.
I focus everything on the curse. My magic wraps around the dark veins, burning them away bit by bit. The curse fights back, trying to spread, trying to consume both of us.
Sweat drips down my face. My arms shake from the effort.
But slowly, the black veins recede. The dead gray skin turns pink again. The poison pulling back.
Finally, I can't hold it anymore. I collapse backward, gasping.
The room spins. Using that much magic drained me completely.
Cassian sits up slowly, staring at his chest. The wound is still there, but smaller. The black veins are gone. For the first time in months, he can breathe without pain.
Then his gray eyes lock onto me.
That magic, he says quietly. That's not street healing. That's royal magic.
My heart stops.
I don't know what you're talking about, I lie, trying to stand. My legs won't work. You were hallucinating from fever
Don't. His voice is cold. Hard. I've spent five years studying everything about Valtheris's royal family. I know royal magic when I see it.
I push myself up against the wall, searching for an escape. But guards stand at the door. Cassian blocks the other exit.
I'm trapped.
Who are you? he demands.
Someone who should have let you die. I force myself to stand, even though my whole body shakes. But I'm a healer. I can't watch people suffer when I can help.
That's not an answer.
It's the only answer you're getting.
We stare at each other. Predator and prey. Hunter and hunted.
Then Cassian does something unexpected.
He stands and walks toward me slowly, hands raised like I'm a wild animal he doesn't want to spook.
I'm not going to hurt you, he says.
Every powerful man says that right before he hurts you.
I'm not every man. He stops an arm's length away. And you're not just a healer.
My breath comes fast and shallow. Fight or flight screaming in my veins.
Here's what I know, Cassian says, his voice dangerously calm. You have royal-level training in medicine, combat, and magic. You're hiding in Lowtown under a fake name. And you just saved my life using power that only one bloodline in Valtheris's possesses.
He steps closer.
So I'll ask one more time. Who. Are. You?
I could keep lying. But he already knows too much.
So I tell him a piece of the truth.
Five years ago, I was someone important, I say quietly. Someone with power and position. Then my family betrayed me. Framed me for something I didn't do. Tried to kill me. I meet his eyes. I survived by becoming nobody. By hiding what I am.
And what are you?
Someone who wants to be left alone.
Silence stretches between us.
Then Cassian says something that changes everything.
My mother was a palace servant twenty years ago. She knew the royal family. His jaw tightens. She told me about a princess. The kind one. The one who treated servants like people. Who healed the sick even when her family told her not to?
My chest goes tight.
She made me promise to find that princess, Cassian continues. To save her. To destroy the people who hurt her. His gray eyes burn into mine. That's why I conquered Valtheris's. Not for the Empire. For her.
I can't breathe.
You're lying, I whisper.
I've never lied to you. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small, worn drawing. My mother drew this from memory before she died.
He hands it to me.
It's a sketch of a young woman in a garden, wearing a blue dress, smiling at flowers. The drawing is old and faded, but the face is unmistakable.
It's me. At age twenty. Before everything fell apart.
My hands shake as I hold the paper.
Why? I ask. Why would your mother care about me?
Because you saved her life when she was sick. You brought her medicine yourself. Sat with her through the fever. His voice softens. She never forgot. And she wanted me to return the favor.
Tears burn my eyes, but I fight them back.
Well, congratulations, I say bitterly. You found her. Now what? Turn me over to my family? Collect a reward?
Now I keep you safe. He says it like it's obvious. And we destroy everyone who tried to kill you.
Before I can respond, an explosion rocks the palace.
The walls shake. Screams echo from below.
Cassian's expression turns deadly. We're under attack.
The door bursts open. Darius runs in, armor half-on, sword drawn.
General! Loyalists breached the east wall. Queen Isadora's forces. They're fighting their way to the throne room.
My blood turns to ice.
My mother is here.
Cassian grabs his sword. Get everyone to the safe rooms. Lock down all entrances.
Sir, they're asking for Darius hesitates, glancing at me. They're demanding the healer. The one who arrived this morning. They say she belongs to the Queen.
The room goes silent.
Cassian turns to me slowly. They know you're here.
Impossible, I breathe. Nobody recognized me
Someone did. His jaw clenches. And they told your mother.
Another explosion shakes the palace. Closer this time.
You stay with me, Cassian orders, pulling on his armor. Don't leave my sight.
I can fight
I know. He tosses me a dagger. That's why you're staying where I can see you.
We run into the corridor. Smoke fills the air. Soldiers rush past, weapons drawn.
The sounds of battle echo from below. Steel clashing. Magic crackling. People screaming.
We race down the stairs toward the throne room. Bodies already litter the floor both Cassian's soldiers and attackers in royal colors.
My mother's colors.
We burst into the throne room.
And there, standing in the center surrounded by her loyalists, beautiful and terrible and unchanged, is Queen Isadora.
My mother.
She's wearing her crown. Her royal gown. Looking every bit the queen she thinks she is.
Her cold eyes sweep the room and land directly on me.
For one frozen moment, mother and daughter stare at each other across the blood-stained floor.
Then Isadora smiles.
A slow, cruel smile that makes my skin crawl.
Hello, darling, she says, her voice carrying across the chaos. Did you really think you could hide from me forever?