CHAPTER 26: The Secrets They Buried
The vial weighed more than it should have.
I kept it tucked in the lining of my cloak, hidden like a second heart. A red heart. A dangerous one. One that didn’t beat, only threatened.
I hadn’t told Lucien.
Not yet.
Not because I didn’t trust him, but because I didn’t trust the silence between us. Something had shifted since the feast. Since the Council started watching me not as a girl bound to their prince but as something else entirely.
A threat.
Or worse… a rival.
It began with the whispers.
A noblewoman refusing to speak in my presence.
A servant dropping his tray when I passed.
Two guards lowering their eyes not out of respect, but fear.
They thought the Flameborn was awakening.
They thought I was becoming Lysandra reborn.
And maybe I
