Chapter 203

For a heartbeat, no one breathed.

Isalune’s words hung in the ward like frost—the kind that forms in strange lace, beautiful until it bites your fingers. Aethel’s grip whitened on her sword hilt. Alessio shifted closer, quiet as a shadow, his body angled to put himself between me and whatever this revelation might awaken. Mirella hovered at my shoulder, healer’s calm fraying at the edges.

“Say it