CHAPTER NINETEEN
WILLIAM
The captain had gathered every knight in the yard for the king’s announcement. The air was heavy with the sound of armor shifting and the quiet murmur of voices. I stood near the front, my hands resting against the hilt of my sword, the sun pressing against the back of my neck.
I should have been listening. Instead, my thoughts were still on Raven.
The way she had said it. Iris.
The name had caught me off guard. It was the name of the princess.
At first, I had dismissed it. Maybe it was a nickname, a private joke between friends. Eric had once said Elara looked like the princess, and I had laughed it off. But the more I thought about it, the harder it was to ignore.
The noise around me began to fade as the king stepped onto the dais. His crown caught the sunlight, his expression calm and unreadable. The crowd quieted instantly.
“People of Elarion,” he began. His voice carried easily through the courtyard. “Our kingdom stands at the edge of change.”
I barely listened. These speeches all sounded the same: talk of borders, of threats, of loyalty and sacrifice. But then his tone
shifted, the kind of shift that makes every soldier lift his head.
“To secure peace,” he said, “a union has been arranged between our house and that of Valebran.”
I frowned. Another marriage for alliance, another trade of names and crowns. It meant nothing to me. Not until the next words came.
“My daughter, Princess Iris of Elarion, will be wed to Prince Lorenzo within the coming days.”
Then I saw her.
She was standing beside the king.
For a moment, the world stopped.
The sunlight hit her hair, that same pale gold I had seen a hundred times before. The pink of her gown caught the wind.
Every line of her face, every flicker of her expression. It was her.
Elara.
No. Not Elara.
Princess Iris.
The name echoed in my head, sharp and hollow. The crowd around me blurred. My fingers went cold around the helmet in my hand.
She wasn’t looking at me, but she didn’t need to. The way her shoulders stiffened told me she knew I was here. That I had seen.
My chest felt tight, every breath rougher than the last.
All this time. Every meeting. Every word. Every look.
A lie.
For a moment, I could not think. The sound of the crowd swelled and faded, as if I stood underwater. The king’s voice echoed somewhere far away, meaningless now.
Then her eyes found mine.
Everything I had believed about her shifted in an instant.
Surprise came first, sharp and cold. Then disbelief. It didn’t make sense. The healer by the river. The girl who laughed at the smallest things. The one who looked at me like I was something more than a knight.
And then the anger came.
It started low, a flicker in my chest, then rose until I could feel it in every breath. She had lied. Every word. Every quiet moment
we shared. All of it built on a lie.
I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to stand still while the others bowed to the king’s announcement. The cheers started up again, hollow and distant, filling the courtyard like noise in a dream.
Above them all, she stood in her gown of silk and silver, the princess of Elarion.
The same woman I had held by the river. The same one who caught my eye the first time I saw her.
And I could not decide which hurt more: that she lied to me, or that part of me that still wanted to believe she didn’t.