Chapter 19 #2
I emerged from behind the privacy screen, tying the robe securely. Kieran's eyes met mine, a silent question passing between us.
"Ready?" he asked quietly.
I nodded, squaring my shoulders despite the unease coiling in my chest.
His jaw tightened, but he didn't argue. Instead, he opened the door. Elias stepped in, and immediately I tried to read him.
His thoughts were... wrong. Fragmented. Like listening to a conversation through a wall—I could hear the words but not make sense of them. Confusion, urgency, fear—but underneath it all, something else. Something that didn't quite fit.
“His mind is fractured,” I projected to Kieran while keeping my face neutral. “I can barely read him.”
"Well?" Kieran prompted aloud.
Elias’ eyes flicked to me, then back to Kieran. "There's been another attempt. On the southern gate. The guards managed to stop it, but..." He swallowed. "One of the attackers was wearing your personal sigil, Your Highness. A forgery, but a good one."
The bond between us went taut as a piano wire. Kieran's fury bled through, sharp and hot.
"Who?" The word was barely more than a growl.
"They're dead. Took poison before we could question them." Elias’ jaw tightened. "But I think—I think someone's trying to make it look like you're behind the attacks. To turn your own people against you."
I watched him carefully, trying to push past the strange static in his mind. His fear felt genuine. His urgency, real. But that underlying note, that thing I couldn't quite identify...
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention," Kieran said, voice controlled but laced with steel. "I'll need to see the body. And the sigil."
"Of course, Your Highness." Elias bowed, but his eyes found mine again. "My lady, I... I apologize for the interruption."
His thoughts brushed against mine—fragments, jumbled, wrong—and for just a heartbeat, I caught something that felt like him, the real him, before it snapped away like a door slamming shut.
My breath caught. “Kieran,” I projected urgently. “He knows something's wrong with him.”
Kieran's hand immediately found the small of my back, steadying, while his face remained impassive. "That will be all, Elias," he said dismissively.
When the door closed behind him, Kieran turned to me. "Tell me everything."
My hands shook as I signed, reinforcing with the bond so he'd understand the full scope.
"His thoughts are confused. Fragmented. Like someone's been in his head.
" I paused, dread settling in my stomach.
“But for just a moment, something broke through.
Fear. Desperation. Like he's fighting something he doesn't understand.”
Kieran's expression went cold, calculating. His mind was working, piecing things together.
"If someone can control him," he said slowly, "they can use him to get close to us. To you."
“We need to find out who's doing it. Before they use him to strike.”
He nodded, already moving toward his wardrobe. “Then we spring our trap sooner than planned. Tonight, there's a formal dinner. Half the Court will be there.”
“Including whoever's controlling Elias?”
"Let's hope so." He turned back to me. His determination, his fear for me, and underneath it all, that fierce protectiveness that made my chest ache spiked through him. "Because if they are, you're going to find them."
“What if I can't?” Fear slipped through before I could stop it. “What if my abilities aren't enough?”
He crossed to me in three strides, tilting my chin up until I had no choice but to meet his gaze. "Then we'll find another way. Together." His thumb brushed my lower lip. "You're not alone in this anymore, Merrit. Whatever happens, we face it together."
The bond thrummed with his certainty, his absolute faith in me. It should have been terrifying—someone believing in me that completely. Instead, it felt like armor.
“Together,” I agreed.
I dressed in silence, choosing practical clothes from the wardrobe—dark trousers, a simple tunic, boots that wouldn't slow me down if I needed to run. The weight of the dagger at my thigh was a comfort, a reminder that I wasn't helpless. That I'd survived far worse than this.
When I emerged, Kieran was already waiting, fully dressed in his princely regalia. But his eyes found mine immediately.
“Are you ready for this?”
I squared my shoulders, lifting my chin. My hands moved with conviction as I signed: "Let's catch a traitor."
“And save Elias while we're at it,” I added. “He doesn't deserve to be a pawn, even if he is a pompous asshole.”
His smile was sharp as a blade, proud and fierce and dangerous. "That's my girl."
The words should have rankled—I wasn't anyone's girl, wasn't anyone's anything. But through the bond, I knew what he meant: partnership, not possession. Trust, not ownership.
And saints help me, I was starting to like it.
We left the chambers side by side, ready to walk into the vipers' nest. Together.
The bond hummed between us, a secret thread connecting us in ways the Court would never understand. My shield. My weapon. My salvation.
Each other's ruin, the old stories said.
But as Kieran's hand found mine, warm and steady, I couldn't help but think that maybe we'd be each other's salvation instead.