WHAT CASSIAN WOULDN'T SAY

I was still shaking when someone knocked on my door that night, and I already knew who it was before I opened it.

"Go away, Cassian."

"Elara, let me in."

I opened the door anyway, because some part of me still wanted to believe my brother had come to fix this. He walked in and shut the door behind him, and for a long moment he didn't say anything at all. He just stood there looking at me like he didn't know where to start.

"I tried to stop it," he said finally. "You have to believe that."

"Did you?" I sat down on the edge of my bed and pulled my knees up to my chest. "Because it didn't sound like you tried very hard."

"You weren't in the room before you got there. There was a vote before you walked in, and I was the only one against it."

"One vote out of six doesn't save anyone, Cassian."

He flinched at that, and I almost felt bad for saying it, almost, until I remembered that in three days I would belong to a stranger in a black castle at the edge of the world, and my brother would still be here, safe, with his crown and his choices still fully his own.

"Why me?" I asked. "Out of everyone in this family, why me?"

Cassian sat down across from me on the chest at the foot of my bed. He rubbed his hands over his face like he was trying to wipe away exhaustion that went deeper than one bad night.

"I don't fully know," he said. "Father said it had to be you specifically. Not just any daughter with royal blood. You."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I have." He looked up at me, and his eyes were red at the edges. "There was something in his voice when he said your name, El. Like it wasn't really about the peace treaty at all. Like it was about getting you out of the palace."

That landed somewhere cold in my chest. "Getting me out. Like I'm a problem he's finally solving."

"I don't know what it means," Cassian said quickly, like he regretted saying it the moment it left his mouth. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just looking for a reason that isn't as simple as him not caring."

"Maybe he really doesn't care," I said. "That's simple enough."

We sat in silence after that, the kind of silence that used to feel comfortable between us when we were children and now just felt like two people who didn't know how to help each other anymore. I thought about all the years I'd spent believing I understood exactly where I stood in this family. Last. Least. Unnecessary. But Cassian's words kept turning over in my head, and a new thought was forming underneath the hurt, quiet and strange.

What if it wasn't just about being unwanted?

What if it was about being dangerous?

"Cassian." I sat up straighter. "Is there something about me you're not telling me?"

He looked at me for a long moment, and something crossed his face, fear maybe, or guilt, or both at once. He opened his mouth like he was finally going to say it, whatever it was.

Someone knocked on the door before he could.

Cassian stood up fast, too fast, like he was relieved for the interruption. "Come in."

One of the palace stewards opened the door, and behind her stood a man I didn't recognize, dressed in black and gray, no house colors I could place, a wax seal on the letter in his hand that wasn't any seal from Virell.

"A message for Princess Elara," the steward said. "It came through the eastern gate an hour ago. The messenger insisted it reach her tonight."

My stomach twisted. Nobody outside Virell knew I existed, not really, not until today.

"Who sent it?" I asked.

The stranger in the doorway answered before the steward could. "The Ash King."

The room went very still.

Cassian's hand moved to the hilt of the short blade he always wore at his hip, an old habit from years of training, but I raised my hand before he could do anything foolish. The messenger didn't look like a threat. He looked tired, like he'd ridden hard and fast to get here, and he held the letter out to me without stepping any closer.

I took it from him with fingers that weren't quite steady. The wax seal was black, pressed with the shape of a dragon curled around a crown, and it felt heavier in my hand than a piece of paper had any right to feel.

"He knows already," I said quietly. "He knows I'm the one they're sending."

"That's not possible," Cassian said. "The treaty was only finalized this morning."

I looked up at the messenger. "How long ago did you leave the Ashlands?"

"Four days ago, Princess."

The room tilted a little, and I had to grip the edge of my bed to steady myself. Four days ago, before the vote, before the council even sat down to decide, before my father called me into that room and told me my purpose had finally been found.

Someone in the Ash Dominion had known my name before Virell did.

I broke the seal.