Chapter 39 Violet #2
The Sun Realm fae who had begun returning after my coronation had been ordered back into hiding again—not because we wanted them gone, but because we couldn’t protect them yet.
Not properly. Not when the most protected borders in Alentara had already been crossed once in a way that should have been impossible.
That fact sat like a stone in the center of every conversation we had.
The Sovereigns had attacked together.
Someone had coordinated them.
Someone had broken through Sebastian’s protections that had held for centuries.
And whoever had done it had nearly succeeded in destroying everything we had just rebuilt.
Now we were all crammed into the war room.
Maps covered every surface—Sun, Night, Forest, Ocean, Flower, Ice.
Parchment layered over parchment until the wood of the table had nearly disappeared beneath them.
Lines had been drawn and redrawn so many times the ink bled together in places, borders marked, erased, and argued over again.
Pins and daggers held corners flat while notes filled the margins in hurried, frustrated handwriting.
Voices overlapped constantly.
I sat at the edge of the chaos, watching the arguments spiral in circles I had already heard three times that morning.
“They’ll regroup,” Adar said, one hand braced on the table as he leaned over the map of the western borders.
“They already are,” Sebastian replied from across the room, his voice flat and controlled in the way it got when he was trying very hard not to let the darkness in his chest loose on everyone nearby.
“The Ocean and Flower Realms can’t be trusted,” Alastor snapped, stabbing a finger toward the coastline on one of the maps.
“They didn’t act alone,” Adar added immediately. “That kind of coordination doesn’t happen without someone directing it.”
“Someone let them through the borders—”
“And someone broke shields that shouldn’t be breakable—”
The arguments tangled together again.
I hadn’t told anyone my theory yet.
At first it was because it sounded ridiculous. The kind of thought you dismiss immediately because it feels too simple compared to the scale of everything that had just happened.
But the longer the conversation went on, the more obvious it became.
So obvious, in fact, that it made my stomach twist with irritation that I hadn’t realized it sooner.
Bronwen sat at the far end of the table.
Silent.
That alone set my teeth on edge.
She leaned back in her chair with her arms folded, her gaze drifting lazily over the maps in front of her like she wasn’t really seeing them at all. Her eyes looked unfocused, distant, like she was looking at something layered over the room that none of the rest of us could see.
She hadn’t said a single word about the blade.
Hadn’t joked.
Hadn’t even smirked.
Bronwen not joking was… deeply unsettling.
Everyone was talking over each other now, voices rising as the discussion spiraled further into frustration. Plans piled on top of plans, strategies layered over fear layered over anger until the room felt thick with it.
“I think I figured it out,” I said.
No one heard me.
“They’re not regrouping the way you think they are,” Adar continued, dragging a hand through his hair. “They lost a Sovereign and half their command structure. That changes the timeline.”
“We still can’t assume they won’t—”
“I know who’s behind it,” I tried again, louder this time.
Still nothing.
My patience snapped.
I slammed both hands down on the table hard enough to rattle every map and dagger across it. “I know who’s behind it!”
The room snapped into silence.
Every head in the room turned toward me.
The bond with Sebastian flared instantly, a protective surge that wrapped tight around my ribs as if he expected someone to lunge across the table at me the moment I opened my mouth. The reaction was so automatic it almost made me smile.
Alastor and Adar went very still.
Bronwen’s attention locked onto me.
For the first time since the meeting began, the room was completely quiet.
I shook my head slowly, frustration curling in my chest. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before. I mean, it started with Nathara and Lilian, then me and Calum, and now—” I gestured to the maps scattered across the table. “Everyone.”
Adar frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re not making any sense, love,” Sebastian added, his voice quieter but no less confused.
“Our allies didn’t betray us,” I said. “They were being controlled.”
The words hung in the air for a second before anyone reacted.
Adar scoffed softly. “Controlled how?”
“I saw the same look on Sefina’s face that I saw on Calum’s in the Sun Realm,” I said, leaning forward over the maps.
“The exact same moment where the look in their eyes changed—like someone else had grabbed the reins. And then I saw it again on every other Sovereign on that battlefield. They were all moving together. Too perfectly.”
I let the realization settle for a moment before finishing the thought.
“And the only way anyone could control that many people—across realms, across bloodlines—is through a blood-binding spell.”
Adar’s skepticism didn’t disappear. “And have you given someone your blood?”
“No,” I said immediately. “But that’s not what matters.”
I pointed to the map where the Sovereign territories met.
“Everyone who was manipulated has Sovereign blood. The Guards fought because they were ordered to. They always do. But the Sovereign families were there too. Fae who would never willingly step onto a battlefield.” My jaw tightened. “Like Celine.”
The memory of her face when I burned her still sat unpleasantly in the back of my mind.
“And that’s when it finally clicked,” I said.
The room waited.
“It’s Queen Mother. She’s had our blood since the creation of the realms.”
Alastor’s voice cut through the silence a moment later, low and thoughtful. “Then why now?”
The answer came to me before I could stop it.
A memory surfaced unbidden.
I’m a bastard, love. I was never meant to be Sovereign.
What Sebastian had once told me echoed through my head. I looked up at him.
“Because Sebastian and I aren’t pure,” I said.
The room went even stiller.
“Our parents found their mates,” I continued. “They broke the rule. They had children outside the Sovereign bloodlines.” I held Sebastian’s gaze as the pieces fell into place around us. “And we became Sovereigns.”
Understanding began to ripple through the room.
“She’s trying to kill us,” I went on. “Because she can’t fully control us the way she can the other Sovereigns. We’re the flaw in the system she built. And without Sovereign blood she can command, she loses her power over the realms.”
Adar’s jaw tightened as the truth settled.
“That’s why she enforced the rule,” I said, the anger in my voice growing sharper with every word. “Sovereigns marrying within Sovereign lines. Keeping the blood pure. Keeping control.”
Sebastian hadn’t moved. But the darkness around his feet had thickened. “She won’t stop until we’re dead.”
I nodded once, the truth settling into my chest.
“If we want to be free,” I said, meeting each of their eyes in turn, “we have to kill Queen Mother.”