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Elara's POVThe days following Mathis's removal from the council brought a strange kind of quiet to Nightfall Hollow, not the uneasy quiet of watching shadows in archways, but something closer to relief, Like the whole castle had been holding its breath for weeks without realizing it and had only just remembered how to breathe normally again."You look lighter today," Nyra observed, watching me across the library table where we'd fallen back into our usual morning routine, though the texts in front of us now had less to do with ancient bloodlines and more to do with simple, practical matters, court customs, the history of Nightfall Hollow's founding, things I found myself wanting to learn now rather than needing to for survival."I feel lighter," I admitted, closing the book I'd been only half reading. "I didn't realize how much weight I was carrying, waiting for the next thing to go wrong, until some of it actually lifted.""Enjoy it while it lasts," Nyra said, though there was war

Elara's POVThe council chamber had a formality to it I hadn't yet experienced during my weeks in Nightfall Hollow, tall stone pillars lining a room built to hold judgment rather than comfort, and as I walked beside Kael toward the raised seats where the elders had already gathered.I felt every one of Freya's lessons settling over my shoulders like armor, straighten your spine, don't grip anything too tightly, let silence work in your favor rather than filling it out of nerves.Elder Mathis sat among the other council members, his expression carefully composed, though I caught the smallest flicker of something sharper cross his face when he saw Kael's grim expression. When he noticed Soren and Nyra falling into place at the edges of the room rather than their usual positions, when he understood, perhaps before anyone said a word, that this gathering hadn't been called for ordinary business."My King," Mathis said, rising slightly in greeting, his voice smooth as ever. "This is an un

Elara's POVSoren brought the news to us just after breakfast, his expression caught somewhere between wary and confused, the kind of look that told me whatever he was about to say wasn't going to be simple."There's someone at the border asking to see Elara," he said. "Alone, if she's willing. He says it's urgent, and he says he's not here on his father's business."My stomach dropped before he even said the name, some old instinct already recognizing the shape of what was coming, and when Soren finally said it. Ryker, I felt Kael go rigid beside me at the breakfast table, his jaw tightening in a way I recognized from the very first morning at the border weeks ago."Absolutely not," Kael said. "Not alone. Not after everything we've just learned about his father's involvement with Mathis.""He might be here because of that involvement," I said carefully, though my own pulse was racing at the thought of standing in front of Ryker again, at the memory of the clearing still sharp enoug

Ryker's POVThe letter arrived sealed in plain wax, no house crest pressed into it, delivered by a rider I didn't recognize who refused to wait for a reply, and I carried it up to my room before I opened it, some old instinct telling me this wasn't something I wanted my father reading over my shoulder before I understood it myself.The handwriting inside wasn't one I knew, careful and slanted, and it took me a moment to realize the letter wasn't addressed to me at all, but to my father, apparently delivered to my room by mistake by a rider who didn't know one Ashwood from another, and even as guilt told me to seal it back up and hand it over unread, curiosity won out the moment I saw Elara's name written plainly in the second line.*Elder Mathis sends his gratitude for the information regarding the Ashwood ceremony and the girl's history. It has proven useful in building the council's case against the King's attachment. He asks that you continue supplying whatever details you can re

Elara's POVNone of us slept easily after Soren's report, and by the next morning I found myself standing at my window long before the household usually stirred, watching the mist curl low over the garden where everything had felt so simple and certain only days before, and wondering how something that had felt like the safest place in the world could so quickly become a place I now watched for shadows in every archway.Kael found me there, his own eyes shadowed with the same lack of sleep, and for a moment neither of us said anything, simply standing together in the quiet, gathering the strength for whatever the day was about to ask of us."I want to write to Vesna," I said finally. "Directly. Not through court channels, not through anything Mathis could intercept. If her name is being used without her knowledge, she deserves to know. And if it isn't, I'd rather find that out honestly than keep guessing in the dark.""That's a risk," Kael said carefully. "If she is involved, you'd be

Elara's POV"What did you have in mind," Kael asked, and I could hear the careful restraint in his voice, the effort it took him not to simply order Mathis dragged in front of the court that very evening and demanded an explanation, an instinct I understood even as I knew it wouldn't get us anywhere useful."We can't confront him without proof," I said, turning the torn page over in my hands, studying the ragged edge where it had been ripped free. "If we accuse him and we're wrong, or even if we're right but can't prove it, we hand him exactly the excuse he needs to paint us as paranoid, or worse, as a threat to the stability of this court. We need something solid. Something that doesn't just rely on suspicion and a missing page.""She's right," Nyra said. "Mathis has spent decades building trust in this court. Tearing that down requires more than a torn page and a shadow in a garden, however suspicious both might be."Kael's jaw tightened, but he nodded slowly, some of the tension