Elara’s POV
“It’s you!” Isolde’s voice cracked through the banquet hall like a whip. “Ela!”
Red wine dripped from my chin onto the ruined ice-blue silk. The cold liquid clung to my skin, but the chill spreading through my chest had nothing to do with the wine.
Every noble within earshot turned. Whispers erupted like wildfire. I could feel the weight of their stares pressing against me from every direction.
Isolde’s shock lasted only a heartbeat before her expression twisted into something sharp and predatory. Her perfectly manicured nails closed around my wrist. Tight. Bruising.
“How did you get in here?” she hissed. “You—a nobody from the border provinces—how did you slither your way into a state banquet?”
The grip. That grip.
I knew it. I had known it since I was a child. Those fi
