Chapter 136
The dungeon stank of mildew, rust, and old blood.
Water dripped steadily from the ceiling, each drop echoing through the corridor with maddening regularity. The torches beyond the iron bars burned weakly, their flickering light barely reaching the back of my cell.
I sat against the cold stone wall, staring at nothing in particular.
My headache had finally subsided, but the heaviness it had left behind remained.
My throat was painfully dry, and my face felt tight from crying.
I had spent what felt like hours trying to make sense of everything that had happened, only to arrive at the same impossible reality: I was in a dungeon, accused of crimes I hadn't committed, sentenced to death, and being told that Rhaevan was dead.
That last part was the one my mind refused to accept.
I closed my eyes, and his face immediately filled my thoughts.
I could still see him standing before the portal, blood running from his mouth and his body barely holding itself upright.
I remembered the exhaustion in his eyes, the tremor in his hands as he forced the portal open despite having almost nothing left, and the way he had rested his forehead against mine before telling me that I would be all right.
You'll be all right. As long as you're safe, I'll be fine.
I swallowed against the ache in my throat.
He had been lying.
He had to have been.
He knew he was injured. He knew the Veiled Thorn was coming, and he knew that forcing open another portal could drain whatever remained of his mana. Yet he had pushed me through anyway.
Because that was who Rhaevan was.
He would always choose to protect me before protecting himself.
But none of that proved he was dead.
The minister could have been lying. After everything he had fabricated about me, why should I believe anything he said about Rhaevan?
He had somehow convinced an entire court that I was the leader of the Veiled Thorn, that I had murdered Queen Seraphine, and that I had betrayed Eryndor. If he could invent all of that, he could certainly lie about Rhaevan.
I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling.
Maybe he had survived the attack.
Maybe someone had found him.
Maybe he had escaped the forest.
The possibilities kept coming, each one giving me something fragile to hold on to before the next thought threatened to take it away.
I hadn't seen him die.
That had to mean something.
Didn't it?
I looked down at the heavy iron shackles around my wrists. Another set bound my ankles, while the enchantments woven throughout the cell suppressed my magic completely. Even if I had wanted to escape, there was nothing I could do.
Strangely, escape no longer felt like the most important thing.
I had spent years fighting for my life.
When I had first awakened in Cassiane's body, this dungeon had been one of the futures I had desperately wanted to avoid.
I had spent countless nights thinking about the original story, trying to remember every death, every betrayal, and every disaster that had once been written into Cassiane's fate.
I had changed everything I could.
I had made careful choices and stupid ones, sometimes without knowing which would matter until much later. I had saved people who were supposed to die, stopped disasters that were never meant to be stopped, and somehow made friends with people who should have hated me.
For years, I had been so determined to survive the ending written for Cassiane that I had forgotten something along the way.
I had started living.
I had found people I cared about. I had found a place where I belonged. I had laughed more than I ever expected to, argued over ridiculous things, and made memories I never thought I would have.
Somewhere along the way, I had fallen in love.
I lowered my head.
Rhaevan.
His name alone made my chest ache.
I remembered the warmth of his embrace, the softness in his voice whenever he called me dove, and the way his expression had changed after we had finally stopped pretending there was nothing between us.
We had spent so long misunderstanding each other.
I had spent so long believing that he loved someone else.
And when we had finally found the courage to tell each other the truth, we had been given almost no time to enjoy it.
The memory of our confession hurt more than I expected.
At least I had no regrets about that.
Rhaevan knew.
He knew that I loved him, and I knew that he loved me. Whatever had happened after that portal closed, there were no words left between us that needed to be spoken.
I had finally found the person I wanted to spend my life with.
For the first time in years, I had stopped thinking of my life as something temporary. I had allowed myself to imagine tomorrow and make plans that stretched beyond the next danger, the next mission, and the simple act of surviving.
I had even allowed myself to imagine growing old with him.
Now I didn't know whether I would ever see another sunrise.
I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes.
I didn't know how much time passed.
The dungeon remained quiet except for the steady dripping of water and the occasional movement of guards beyond the corridor. I sat there listening to those sounds, caught between the certainty of my sentence and the uncertainty surrounding Rhaevan.
I wanted to believe the minister had lied.
But every time I remembered Rhaevan's bloodied face, that hope became harder to hold.
Eventually, exhaustion settled over me.
I rested my head against the wall and stared through the bars, wondering whether I was waiting for my execution or simply waiting for someone to prove that the worst thing I had ever heard wasn't true.
Footsteps eventually echoed through the corridor.
I lifted my head.
They were heavy and measured, growing louder with every passing second until they stopped outside my cell. The guard straightened, and two more soldiers appeared behind him. One carried a folded parchment sealed with the royal crest.
He broke the seal, unfolded the document, and looked directly at me.
"Cassiane Valerith Ardentia."
I raised an eyebrow.
"I don't think anyone has called me by my full name in weeks."
He didn't react.
"The sentence passed by the Royal Tribunal shall be carried out today."
Something inside me tightened.
"The condemned shall receive execution by royal poison in accordance with the laws governing crimes of treason against the Crown. The sentence is final."
He rolled the parchment closed.
There was no anger in his voice, no satisfaction, and no ceremony. He delivered the words with the same detached tone someone might use to announce the day's schedule.
For some reason, that made the reality of it settle more heavily over me.
This was actually happening.
One of the guards unlocked the shackles around my ankles and pulled me into the centre of the dungeon, forcing me to kneel.
More footsteps approached.
I looked toward the corridor and froze.
Lysenne appeared at the entrance.
A maid walked behind her carrying a small bowl.
Lysenne wasn't dressed in one of the elegant gowns I was accustomed to seeing her wear. Instead, she wore a simple black dress. Right, her mother's funeral was today.
I stared at her, waiting for her to look at me.
She didn't.
She kept her gaze lowered as she walked into the cell.
Lysenne had always looked at me with a smile. Her face was bright and radiant even in the most difficult times. But now she couldn't even meet my eyes. There was no hope left on her face.
The soldier stepped forward and unrolled the parchment again.
"The death sentence shall be carried out in the presence of Her Royal Highness, Princess Lysenne Alaric Eryndor, Crown Princess of Eryndor and daughter of His Majesty King Alaric Eryndor."
He rolled the parchment closed and turned toward me.
"The prisoner shall state her final wish."
I looked at Lysenne.
There were so many things I could have asked for. I could have asked for a chance to see Lucien, an explanation for what had happened, or even one more day in which I could pretend that none of this was real.
But none of those things could give me what I actually wanted.
I wanted Rhaevan.
And if he really was gone, there was no wish I could make that would change it.
So I gave a faint smile.
"Can you take care of Cookie?"
Lysenne's shoulders stiffened.
"And, if possible, spare Martha. She is innocent."
She still wouldn't look at me.
"Your wish shall be granted," she said firmly.
Her voice cracked on the final word.
I nodded. That was enough.
The guard turned toward the maid.
"Bring forth the poison."
The maid took a hesitant step forward, carrying the bowl carefully in both hands.
Before she could reach me, Lysenne spoke.
"I'll give it to her."
The maid stopped and looked between Lysenne and the guards. After a moment, she bowed and reluctantly handed the bowl to the princess.
Lysenne accepted it with trembling hands.
She took a slow breath before walking toward me and crouching down.
The liquid inside the bowl was a deep crimson.
She extended it toward me, and I reached out to take it from her hands.
For a moment, neither of us moved. She slowly raised her eyes to meet mine, then looked away immediately. After handing me the bowl, she rose and turned to resume her position.
"Sister."
The word came out more quietly than I intended.
She stopped and slowly turned to look at me.
I studied her face. There were tears gathering in her eyes now, though she was desperately trying to hold them back.
My heart began to pound.
"Is..." My voice faltered, and I swallowed before forcing the question out. "Is Rhaevan really gone?"
For a while, Lysenne stared at me.
She didn't answer. Her lips trembled, and then a single tear slipped down her cheek. She lowered her head and nodded.
I understood. I didn't need her to say the words.
Whatever fragile hope I had carried with me through that dungeon finally broke.
My fingers tightened around the bowl.
I lowered my eyes to the crimson liquid, but it had already begun to blur before me. I couldn't feel the cold stone beneath my knees anymore, nor could I hear the guards shifting around us.
Everything seemed distant.
Rhaevan was gone.
And this time, I believed it.
Lysenne closed her eyes and drew in a shaky breath before forcing herself to stand.
"Drink," she said. Her voice was firm, almost cruel.
But I understood why she had made herself sound that way. If she allowed herself to speak gently, she might not have been able to carry out the execution at all.
I didn't argue. I didn't cry. I simply lifted the bowl.
For one final moment, I let myself remember him without fighting the memories.
His smile. The quiet sound of his laughter. The warmth of his arms around me. The feeling of his lips on mine.
The way he had held me as though letting go had never been an option.
I wondered whether he had been thinking of me when the portal closed. I wondered whether his last thought had been of me, just as mine was now of him.
I brought the bowl to my lips and drank, emptying its contents.
"Not as bad as I thought," I murmured.
After drinking, I looked up at Lysenne and smiled. A strange feeling spread through my chest, followed by a crushing heaviness that settled over my entire body. My vision blurred, and I pressed a trembling hand against my chest as my strength slowly abandoned me. I coughed as I gasped for breath.
The bowl slipped from my fingers and struck the stone floor with a sharp clang.
I tried to remain upright, but my body no longer listened, and I fell onto the cold stone floor.
The last thing I saw was Lysenne standing above me, tears streaming silently down her face as the guards moved around her.
My thoughts were already slipping away, but even as everything else began to disappear, one thought remained.
Rhaevan, if there is another life, I'll find you. And this time, I'll choose you from the beginning.
My lips barely moved as I whispered the words I had only just learned I could say without fear.
"I love you."
The darkness closed over me.
And somewhere within it, I could almost feel his arms around me again.
Author's Message
I need to tell you something.
This is not an illusion.
This really happened, and Cassiane actually drank the contents of that bowl.
That's all I'm going to say.
I'm packing my bags and silently leaving before you guys find me and kill me before I can post the next chapter.
Bbye. ???♀?