Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

Tahlia's POV"This way. Move!"The guard's shout was the only warning I got before his blade caught the warrior lunging for me, steel screaming against steel close enough that I felt the shock of it in my teeth. I didn't wait to see who won. I ran."There's a passage behind the dais," I called back, memory snapping into place from the palace maps I'd spent five days memorizing for reasons that had nothing to do with tonight. "Servants' route, original construction. It predates the east wing renovations. Kael's men won't know it exists.""You're certain?""I'm certain it's better than dying in an open throne room."We hit the narrow gap behind the throne at a dead sprint. My hand found the seam in the stonework exactly where the old architectural records had shown it, a mechanism stiff with disuse that gave way only after I threw my full weight against it. The passage beyond was narrow, black, choked with dust that hadn't been disturbed in years. I didn't care. I shoved both guards thr

Tahlia's POV "You shouldn't be sitting up." "I've been lying down for three days, Tahlia. If I stay horizontal any longer, I'm fairly certain my own council will start drafting my funeral speech out of sheer habit." Ronan shifted against the pillows, wincing at the pull of the bandage across his side, but the color had come back into his face, and his eyes tracked me across the room with a steadiness that hadn't been there since the courtyard. "The healer said two weeks minimum before you're back on your feet properly." "The healer also said I shouldn't have survived that wound at all, and yet." He gestured vaguely at himself, alive and breathing and stubborn as ever. "I'd say the healer's projections have already proven flexible." I didn't smile, though something in my chest wanted to. I crossed to the window instead, looking out over the palace grounds where the aftermath of the coup was still being catalogued: bodies removed, corridors cleared, guards doubled at every entr

Ronan's POV"You brought me the wrong report again."I stopped halfway through the doorway of her study, the requisition folder still in my hand, and felt my stomach drop in a way that had nothing to do with kingdom finances. "The grain figures-""Are from three weeks ago. I need this quarter's numbers if I'm going to finish the eastern resupply projections before Kastor's meeting tomorrow." Tahlia didn't look up from the ledger in front of her, but there was no real heat in her voice, just the particular exhaustion of someone who'd said this exact thing to someone else a dozen times already today."I'll get the right ones.""Ronan."I paused at the door."You didn't have to bring them yourself. That's what runners are for.""I know." I set the wrong folder down anyway, feeling foolish, like a man who'd spent a week trying to prove something and kept fumbling the simplest parts of it. "I wanted an excuse to see you. Wrong excuse, apparently. I'll go get the right one."Something flick

Tahlia's POVThe whole courtyard held its breath, waiting for me.I looked down at Ronan, kneeling in the exact spot where he'd once shattered me in front of everyone I'd ever known, and let myself remember all of it at once. He deserved an answer built on the whole truth, not a comfortable half of it.I reject you, fatass.The words still lived somewhere in me, scarred over but never fully erased. I remembered the laughter that followed, sharp and delighted, strangers finding entertainment in my humiliation the way vultures find carrion. I remembered walking home alone that night, past a mother who offered no comfort and a sister who offered none either, remembered lying awake calculating exactly how small I'd have to become to stop being a disappointment.I remembered Briar Hollow's quiet contempt, years of it, the particular cruelty of being overlooked so thoroughly that even my competence became invisible. I remembered the loneliness that had settled into my bones long before Rona

Tahlia's POV"Sign here, here, and here. Then it goes to Kastor for the seal."Priya slid three documents across my desk without ceremony, the same brisk efficiency she'd shown since the day I caught her transcription error in the eastern garrison manifest. I signed each one without looking up, the motions as familiar now as breathing."That's the last of the territorial resource allocations for the quarter," she said. "The council's actually stopped arguing about your projections. Took them long enough.""They stopped arguing because the projections keep being right.""That, and General Kastor threatened to remove anyone who wasted another session questioning numbers a Luna-in-waiting had already verified twice." Priya smiled, gathering the papers. "You've got this palace running smoother than it has in a decade, and half of them still can't believe it's the same woman Briar Hollow used to call plain."I set my pen down and let myself sit with that for a moment.A year and a half ago