Todos os capítulos de The Girl the Alpha Academy Couldn't Break: Capítulo 61 - Capítulo 70

Neris's POV"You're bringing all three of them."My mother says it as a statement, not a question, watching Cassian, Evren, and Lucien load supplies onto the small convoy assembled at the academy's rebuilt gates."They've earned the right to come. After everything we've survived together, I'm not leaving any of them behind for a journey this dangerous.""I'm not questioning their loyalty, Neris. I'm questioning whether traveling with three men whose families each carry complicated history with your bloodline is wise, given everything we're walking toward.""They're not their families. Each of them proved that already." I check the last of my own supplies, steadying myself against the weight of what we're about to attempt. "Besides, I trust them considerably more than I trust anyone currently sitting on that Council."She doesn't argue further, though something in her expression suggests the concern hasn't fully disappeared, simply been set aside in favor of more immediate priorities.

Neris's POV"Don't touch me."Lucien stops mid-step, his hand still half raised. Behind him, the clearing is emptying. My mother's warriors are dragging the prisoner toward the camp, and the torches are burning low."Neris," he says carefully."Not yet." I back away until a tree trunk presses against my spine. "Ten minutes ago a stranger called you the Architect, and you looked like someone had cut your strings. Now you're walking toward me like nothing happened.""Something did happen.""Then talk."Cassian steps between us, one palm out. "Neris, he's as shaken as you are.""Is he?" I keep my eyes on Lucien. "Because I watched his face. Fear, yes. But not confusion."Silence.Lucien lowers his hand slowly. His jaw tightens, and he looks at the ground before he looks at me."You're right," he says.Cassian turns to stare at him. "Lucien.""Let me say this once, and say it properly." His voice is rough. "Not here. Somewhere with walls.""Why?" I ask."Because your mother's warriors are

Neris's POV"There's no body."Lucien's voice is tight as he examines the tent's interior with careful, methodical precision, stepping around the blood pooled across the ground without disturbing what might be evidence."That's blood everywhere," I say, my voice unsteady despite every effort to hold myself together. "How is there no body?""That's precisely the point." He crouches near the largest pool, studying its pattern with the same analytical focus he brings to every crisis, even one this personal. "This blood distribution doesn't match a killing, Neris. It's too deliberate, too evenly spread. This looks staged.""Staged for what purpose?""To make us believe something happened here that didn't actually occur, or to disguise what actually did happen beneath something considerably more alarming." Cassian arrives behind us, his expression grim as he surveys the scene. "If she'd been killed, there would be considerably more disruption. Overturned furniture, signs of struggle, evide

Neris's POV"I'm not your queen."The words come out sharper than I intend, cutting through the reverent silence still hanging over the kneeling assembly, and Sorrel's expression doesn't waver despite my obvious rejection."With respect," she says carefully, rising from her own kneeling position, "that is not a title you simply decline, the way one might refuse an invitation to dinner.""I've spent eighteen years as a servant. A charity case. A secret someone needed hidden well enough that even I didn't understand what I was until a few months ago." I shake my head, the weight of hundreds of expectant stares pressing against me from every direction. "I don't know the first thing about ruling anyone.""Perhaps not yet," Sorrel says. "But the title doesn't depend on your current readiness, Neris. It depends on bloodline, and bloodline is not something earned through preparation. It simply is.""Explain that to me properly," I say. "Not simply reverence and kneeling. I need to understand

Neris's POV"You don't have to do this."I say it quietly, watching Cassian prepare for the formal address he's arranged before what remains of his family's assembled household, the weight of what he's about to do settling heavy across his usually composed features."Yes, I do." He checks the formal seal he's carrying, not his family's authentication mark but a simple, personal signet he's apparently kept since childhood, untainted by whatever corruption his uncle's temporary authority has introduced. "If I don't publicly reject what my family's seal has been used to authorize, every future accusation against you carries my house's implicit endorsement, regardless of my own actual intentions.""Your uncle could have you removed entirely. Stripped of your inheritance, your title, everything your family's spent generations building.""Then he strips it." Cassian meets my eyes directly, certainty settling into his expression despite the obvious cost he's calculating. "I refuse to inherit