Asheron's POV
I watch them drag Elara toward the executioner's block and feel something inside me scream.
But I keep my face cold. Emotionless. The perfect mask of a tyrant.
Because Seraphine is watching me. And she can't know that I've figured out her game.
It started three hours ago, when Kieran came to me in secret with the poison test results. When he showed me the evidence of systematic drugging. When everything clicked into place.
Seraphine has been killing me slowly for years. Keeping me weak. Controllable.
And I never saw it. Never suspected the woman I trusted most.
"Your Majesty," Seraphine says beside me, her voice sweet as honey. "Should we proceed with the execution?"
I look at her. Really look at her. At the beautiful face hiding a monster.
"Yes," I say coldly. "Let's end this."
Elara is forced to her knees at the executioner's block. Her father beside her. Kieran on the other side.
All three about to die for trying to save my life.
I see Elara look at me one last time. The hurt in her eyes nearly breaks my resolve.
Trust me, I want to scream. Just trust me a little longer.
But I can't say it. Not with Seraphine watching.
The executioner raises his axe.
"Wait," I say.
Everyone freezes.
I stand, descending from my throne. Every eye in the room follows me.
"Lady Seraphine," I say calmly. "Before we execute them, I have a question."
She smiles. "Of course, Your Majesty."
"The wine. The wine you've been personally selecting for me for the past ten years. The wine from the royal cellars that you insisted only you could choose because you know my preferences so well." I pause. "Why does it contain corrupted magic?"
Her smile falters. Just for a second. "I don't know what you mean—"
"Captain Kieran tested it. Every bottle marked with my personal seal. Every bottle you selected. All poisoned." I take a step closer. "Explain that."
The throne room is dead silent.
"Someone must have tampered with the bottles," Seraphine says smoothly. "Perhaps the Veylans themselves, trying to frame me—"
"The journals," I interrupt. "Lady Catherine's research journals. I read them while you were distracted by your victory speech. They're real. Dated. Detailed. She documented your access to the cellars. Your insistence on selecting my wine personally. Your threats when she tried to warn me."
Seraphine's face goes pale. "That's absurd—"
"She wrote that you visited her the night before her arrest. That you told her to stop investigating or her daughter would pay the price." My voice drops to something deadly. "Tell me, Seraphine. Did you kill Lady Catherine yourself? Or did you have someone else do it?"
"Your Majesty, you're not well. The poison is affecting your judgment—"
"I'm thinking more clearly than I have in years." I signal to guards I'd positioned earlier—ones loyal to Kieran, not to Seraphine. "Seize Lady Seraphine for high treason against the crown."
Chaos erupts.
Seraphine's hand shoots out, dark magic crackling around her fingers. "You fool! You were supposed to die quietly! You were supposed to make me queen!"
She blasts the guards with corrupted magic. They fly backward, hitting walls.
The nobles scream and scatter. More guards rush in.
Seraphine is powerful—far more powerful than she ever let on. Dark magic pours from her in waves, destroying everything in its path.
"I've been planning this for fifteen years!" she screams, her beautiful face twisted with rage. "I made you weak! Made you dependent on me! You were supposed to die and leave me in charge!"
She raises her hand toward me, gathering enough magic to kill.
But she forgot one thing.
I'm not alone.
Elara breaks free from her guards and throws herself in front of me. Her hands glow with that impossible combination of light and shadow.
When Seraphine's death spell hits Elara's shield, it shatters like glass.
"No!" Seraphine shrieks. "You're supposed to be powerless! The chains—"
"Were removed when you were too busy gloating," Kieran says, also free. He has a sword at Seraphine's throat before she can cast again. "Surrender. Now."
For a moment, I think she will.
Then she smiles. Cold. Calculating.
"You win this round," she says. "But I'm not the only one who wants you dead, Asheron. I'm just the one who got closest."
Before anyone can stop her, she bites down on something. Poison, I realize too late.
She collapses, black foam bubbling from her lips.
Dead in seconds.
Taking all her secrets with her.
I stare at her body, feeling nothing. No satisfaction. No relief. Just exhaustion.
"Your Majesty." Elara's voice is soft. "Are you—"
I turn to her and do something I haven't done in three hundred years.
I pull her into my arms and hold on tight.
She stiffens in shock, then slowly relaxes against me.
"I'm sorry," I whisper into her hair. "I'm sorry I made you think I didn't believe you. I had to make Seraphine feel safe enough to reveal herself."
"You believed us the whole time?"
"From the moment Kieran brought me the poison results. I just needed her to confess in front of witnesses." I pull back to look at her. "Forgive me?"
Elara stares at me for a long moment. Then she punches my shoulder. Hard.
"Don't ever do that again," she says, her voice shaking. "I thought I was going to die thinking you hated me."
"I could never hate you." The words come out more intense than I intended. "You saved my life. You risked everything to find the truth. You're the bravest person I've ever met."
Her eyes fill with tears. "My father—"
"Is free. And cleared of all charges." I look over at Lord Caius, who's being helped to his feet by guards. "He'll receive full medical care and compensation for the years he suffered."
"And Kieran?"
"Gets a promotion. And my eternal gratitude." I manage a small smile. "He's the only captain who's ever disobeyed me and lived to tell about it."
Kieran bows. "I serve the crown, Your Majesty. Even when it means going against your orders."
I turn back to Elara. "You can leave now. You're free. The charges are dropped. Your forbidden magic is officially pardoned. You can go anywhere you want."
She blinks. "Just like that?"
"Just like that." I force myself to release her, even though everything in me wants to keep holding on. "You've earned your freedom."
Elara looks at me. Then at her father being tended by healers. Then back at me.
"What about your curse?" she asks quietly.
"What about it?"
"Seraphine was accelerating it, but she didn't create it. You're still cursed. Still dying, just slower now." She crosses her arms. "Who's going to heal you if I leave?"
My heart does something strange in my chest. "You want to stay?"
"I want to finish what my mother started. She died trying to cure you. I'm not going to let that be for nothing." She pauses. "Besides, someone needs to make sure you don't trust the next beautiful liar who walks into your life."
I laugh. Actually laugh. It feels foreign, like I've forgotten how.
"Then stay," I say. "Stay and help me break this curse properly. As my healer. My advisor. My—"
I stop, not sure what I want to say. Friend? Ally? Something more that I don't have words for yet?
Elara smiles. "Your partner?"
"Yes." The word feels right. "My partner."
She offers her hand. I take it.
And this time when our magic connects, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't fight.
It feels like coming home.
"Your Majesty!" A guard bursts into the throne room, his face white with terror. "The northern border! We're under attack!"
My blood runs cold. "What?"
"An army. Thousands of soldiers. They appeared out of nowhere, using dark magic we've never seen before." The guard is shaking. "They're demanding your surrender. They say—" He swallows hard. "They say Lady Seraphine was just the beginning. That the real attack starts now."
I look at Seraphine's body.
She said she wasn't the only one who wanted me dead.
She was telling the truth.
"How long until they reach the capital?" I ask.
"Three days, Your Majesty. Maybe less."
Three days to prepare for a war I didn't know was coming. Three days to save a kingdom that's already been weakened by years of poison.
Three days to figure out who's really behind all of this.
I look at Elara. "That offer to leave is still open. You could run far away from this mess."
She squeezes my hand. "I just found my father. Met a king who actually listens. And discovered I'm powerful enough to fight impossible odds." Her eyes flash with that fierce determination I'm starting to love. "I'm not running. Not now. Not ever."
Beside us, Kieran draws his sword. "Where the king stands, I stand."
Lord Caius struggles to his feet, supported by healers. "My daughter doesn't fight alone."
I look around the throne room. At the nobles who survived. At the guards who remained loyal. At this broken kingdom I've ruled for too long.
And I realize something.
For the first time in three hundred years, I'm not alone.
"Then we fight," I say. "All of us. Together."
The guard clears his throat nervously. "Your Majesty, there's one more thing."
"What?"
"The army's leader. She sent a message." He hands me a sealed letter with shaking hands. "She says she's your sister."
The world stops.
"That's impossible," I whisper. "My sister died three hundred years ago. I watched her die."
But when I open the letter, I recognize the handwriting instantly.
"Dear brother,
Surprised I'm alive? You should be. You left me to die in that war you were so desperate to win. But I survived. Changed. Became something better than what you are.
Now I'm coming to take back what should have been mine.
See you soon.
—Selene"
My hands shake so hard the letter falls to the floor.
My sister. Alive. Leading an army. Coming to destroy everything I've built.
And she's had three hundred years to plan her revenge.