LOGINELENA'S POV, “Elena.” That voice from before came again, closer this time. “Focus on my voice, and let it consume you.” I recognised that voice this time because he kept speaking. It wasn't the first time I had heard it, and my mind still remembered it. Silverlake. He had appeared at my left witho
ELENA'S POV, “Elena, leave—” Andrew's voice cut through the noise and I ducked without thinking. Something passed over my head that I felt rather than saw, and then Andrew was there. “This place is not safe for you.” “Prince Andrew is right, come with me, Princess,” Joyce said, handling what I had
ELENA'S POV, The door swung open and the noise hit me like a wall before I could recollect my thoughts. The events unfolding in the main hall weren't the clean, controlled chaos of a fight with established rules and regulations. It was the other kind, the wild kind of chaos that I was expecting t
ANDREW'S POV, “That seems premature. We're at a delicate point in the discussion—” “Which is exactly why we need a few minutes,” I said, holding his gaze. He looked away first, and I continued. “To discuss your proposals in private and speak our mind without you listening to us. Unless there's a r
ANDREW'S POV, I noticed the guard first. Not his presence, his absence. The post in the east corridor had been manned every time I had checked it since we arrived. It was a consistent, unremarkable detail that I had catalogued the way I catalogued everything in a room like this one—automatically,
ELENA'S POV, The report came in fragments, the way bad news always did. It wasn't clean, nor with the kind of clarity that made decisions easy. Just pieces, arriving one after another through channels that were supposed to be secure and reliable, and each piece landed worse than the one before it.
ANDREW'S POV,“We can, but it won't be easy,” Ryan said, his voice calm in a way that mine hadn't been ever since the signing of the treaty. “But we will have to be smarter with our strategy.”I looked at him for a long moment, searching his face for a glimmer of doubt or hesitation. For any crack t
ELENA'S POV,“Talking about the prophecy... to make Ryan believe that you're with me, I might have told him that you agreed to give me the throne.”Andrew's expression tightened a little when he heard me, but I didn't see anger or suspicion in his eyes. “Okay... but I haven't agreed to that. Why wou
GEORGINA'S POV,“We will win together, Julian. This is not our end.”He didn't look convinced, and I could already see his major concern written all over his face. The way his brain worked couldn't have been more different from mine. Anyone in his place should have been thinking about taking advanta
ANDREW'S POV,“You speak boldly for someone who required President Ryan's intervention to steady his own people,” he said smoothly, which had the people behind him cheer. “Do not forget, Prince Andrew, that Ryan is not a king like your father. He is the President of a democratic nation, elected by h







