The silence stretched between them, thick and unbreakable.
Caroline stared at the fire, her thoughts spiraling, her heart pounding too fast, too unevenly.
"You were meant to be my queen."
Caelan’s words refused to leave her mind.
They pressed against her ribs, lodged in her throat, refusing to be ignored.
She should have laughed, denied it, thrown it back in his face.
But she didn’t.
Because somewhere, deep in her bones, in the places she had never let herself explore—
She knew he wasn’t lying.
The way she had always felt out of place in Ezra’s court, the way she had always struggled to find where she truly belonged—it all made sense now.
She wasn’t raised in Ezra’s kingdom because she belonged there.
She was raised there to be kept away from here.
From him.
From the truth.
C
