Chapter Thirty-Two: Refusing the Throne
The island did not feel like an island anymore.
It felt like a spotlight.
Helicopters circled far above the coastline.
Drones hovered like restless insects.
News vans were already docking at the shorelines of neighboring ports, broadcasting live feeds through unstable signals.
The world was watching Cassandra again.
Not as a slave.
Not as a survivor.
But as a decision.
*****
Cassandra
She stood at the edge of the broken temple, wind pulling strands of hair across her face.
The headlines on Seraphine’s cracked communicator repeated in looping madness:
GLOBAL SUPERHUMAN SUMMIT DEMANDS ROMANTIC ALIGNMENT FOR STABILITY
Cassandra blinked once.
Then slowly turned to Seraphine.
“Say that again.”
Seraphine looked tired in a way that suggest
