**Nymera’s POV**
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I always imagined betrayal would feel loud.
Like shattering glass.
Like the snap of a bone.
But when I saw Lira—my father’s old lieutenant, the one who taught me how to sheath a blade without flinching—step out of the shadows with a dagger aimed at my ribs…
It was quiet.
Almost gentle.
“Don’t move,” she whispered.
She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
I didn’t reach for a weapon.
I just said, “Why?”
Her jaw clenched. “Because you’re going to bring the world down with you.”
“I haven’t,” I said.
“Not yet.”
She stepped forward.
“You were meant to lead,” she said. “Not rise above us like some cursed star.”
“I never asked for any of this.”
“No,” Lira whispered. “But you didn’t *walk away* from it either.”
She struck.
I moved faster.
My blade clanged
