All Chapters of From Betrayed Luna to Crowned Princess: Chapter 231 - Chapter 240

Ravena's POV I went back to Aunt Selene the next day, and this time Evander came with me.He had been away on the far side of the estate at dawn seeing to pack business, but the moment it was done he rode out through the snow to find me, and he came into that dark sickroom with the cold still on his shoulders and the flakes melting in his dark hair, and he bowed his head to my aunt with as much respect as he would have shown a queen. When Selene had drifted back into her uneasy dozing, I drew Evander out into the small cold antechamber where we could speak alone, and I told him all of it. The writ. The vile disease and the jealousy written in Rourke's own hand. The blood on the cloth. And then the rest, Rourke's suit for Rhea, the great rich pack, everything.Evander listened without a word, and his face grew darker with every line of it."It's monstrous," he said at last, low. "To cast a woman off after twenty years on a lie, to name her diseased so no soul will pity her, and to d

Ravena's POV In that very moment, the hall went silent.Corin's face crumpled. Whatever else he was, weak, selfish, absent, the grief that broke over him was real. His eyes filled and spilled over and he pressed a hand to his mouth, and I saw that this one, at least, had loved her in his useless way.But Isolde. I saw Isolde's eyes redden on cue, saw her summon the look of a grieving daughter, her chin trembling. A

Ravena's POV The next day was the palace banquet.There was no avoiding it. The King had called the court together, and we were expected, and so we went, all of us, Evander and I, and Lady Vivienne, and even Erik, my nephew, in his good coat with his cane, small and solemn at my side. I didn't want to go.

The Palace of Longevity was the quietest place in the whole palace, a hushed wing of cozy rooms and soft carpets where the old Dowager, mother to a King and grandmother to a kingdom, spent her long comfortable days. It was here that Rourke brought his family when they left the banquet, to pay their respects to his mother, and it was here, seated by the Dowager's fire with a cup of warm wine in her hand, that he found the Grand Princess already waiting.Marianne had all but grown up in these rooms. She had been born to a lesser branch of the royal house and hande

Ravena and Evander stayed at the banquet only as long as courtesy demanded.They exchanged a few last pleasantries with the King and the Queen, gentle words and small smiles, and Lady Vivienne did her part beautifully, and then, at the first proper moment, they made their bows and took their leave and went home to the pack. No one pressed Ravena to stay. They could all see the grief sitting heavy on her, the shadow under her calm, and even the Queen, in parting, only took her hand and told her softly not to let sorrow eat at her too deeply, that the living owed