Chapter Twenty-Two: Poison in the Garden
373 Words
Elira finds me in the garden behind the war tent—if it can be called a garden.
Just ashes and stubborn roots, surviving where nothing should grow.
Fitting.
I don’t turn as she approaches.
“I thought you’d wait until nightfall to try and poison me,” I say.
She chuckles. “Oh, I don’t need poison. Words are sharper.”
She sits beside me on the stone ledge.
For a long moment, we say nothing.
Then:
“You love him,” she says.
“I shouldn’t,” I reply.
“But you do.”
I nod once.
“So did I,” she whispers. “But Kael doesn’t love women. He loves power. And right now, you have more of it than you know.”
I glance at her.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re not just some random Luna the bond chose for him,” she says softly. “You were marked by the Council before he met you. You think it’s coincidence? Your bloodline. Your scent. Your mind. You were bred for influence, Aurora.”
“That’s insane.”
“It’s prophecy.”
I laugh bitterly.
“Don’t flatter me with fate, Elira. I know what I am.”
“Do you?” she snaps, turning to face me fully. “Because Kael does. And he’s terrified.”
I feel that truth settle into my bones like ice.
“You think I’m being used,” I say.
“I think you’re being tamed.”
The silence between us sharpens.
Then she leans closer, voice like silk and steel.
“You could rule beside him. But you’d always be in his shadow. Or…”
She smiles.
“You could rule without him.”
My breath catches.
“You don’t know me.”
“But I see you. I see the rage beneath your scars. I see the fire he’s trying to smother.”
I meet her eyes.
And I hate how much I want to believe her.
Elira leans back, composed once again.
“Think about it,” she murmurs. “Before love turns you into a ghost too.”
Then she leaves me—
Alone in the ash garden,
Where things survive that shouldn’t.
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- Writer
