Lorien POV
“He can’t be trusted, Lorien,” Queen Elara said, her voice smooth but laced with warning.
Something deep inside me rebelled against her words. A whisper in the back of my mind insisted she was wrong he could be trusted. But her? Not so much.
The way she looked at me sent a chill down my spine. Her gaze lingered too long, sharp and calculating, like she was assessing whether I was a rival or a threat. The air around her seemed to tighten, making me uneasy.
“I appreciate your concern,” I said carefully, taking a small step back to create some distance between us. “But that doesn’t change the fact that innocent people are being tortured for something they had no hand in something that happened long before they were even born.”
“Come back with us,” she offered smoothly, steppin
