[Music recomndation: Rok Nardin - It’s Ok]
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Elara smiled coldly at Evelyn, exactly the way Evelyn rembered, a smile that once made her cower in fear. But now, it only made her want to wipe it off her smug face, just as she wanted to do to Viva.
Queen Elara fully expected Evelyn to respond ekly, just as she had in the past. Yet her smug smile slowly began to falter when Evelyn remained silent, as if she hadn’t heard a single word she said.
As the silence stretched between them, Elara’s smug expression twisted into one of displeasure. Her voice sharpened as she demanded, "Didn’t you hear , Princess Evelyn?"
Evelyn’s lips curved into the faintest, coldest smile. "I heard you, Queen Elara," she replied calmly. "I was simply at a loss for words when you asked to greet my parents....when I don’t have any." Her sharp gaze shifted to her father. "Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?" she addressed him almost like a taunt.
This ti, it was King Solan’s face that tightened in displeasure. "It seems that with a little taste of freedom, you have forgotten your roots. Is this truly what you have been taught?"
Evelyn let out a chilling, hollow chuckle, and all three of them looked at her as if she had gone mad. "Taught?" she repeated. "You an to be quiet, obedient, and helpless?"
The smile vanished from her lips entirely. She looked at them like they were strangers, and perhaps they had always been. They had never once treated her as family. To them, she had been nothing but a puppet. A puppet ant to dance at their command, without a voice, without a will, without the basic right to think.
But if they thought she would be the sa Evelyn they had sent away under the guise of "education," they were gravely mistaken. She had grown since then. She had learned what it ant to care for soone...to have soone have her back...to nurture a bond. She had learned never to bend before anyone, not when she had done nothing wrong in the first place. Just as he had reminded her again and again.
And now that she understood it, she would never let that feeling disappear from her life. She would fight for what was right, for her dignity, for her freedom. She would love fiercely, even if that love destroyed her, and she would protect it with every last breath in her body.
"It may co across as being imprudent, Your Majesty, but allow to remind you of the exact words you spoke before sending away without so much as a glance:
’I believe it is best for you to experience the world beyond these walls and learn what it takes to beco a princess, one who can serve her people when the ti cos.’
So I learned, Your Majesty. I learned to beco my own person. I learned to defend myself when needed. I learned to protect those who are important to . And above all...I learned what it truly ans to be a princess to her people."
Her power stirred from deep within, resonating through the air. For a split second, her eyes flashed a brilliant gold as she looked directly into Solan’s eyes, stunning him into silence. This was the first ti he had ever witnessed her powers respond to her...since the day she was born.
The brief golden flash dragged him back to the very first mont he had held her as a newborn, when she had glowed like a tiny star in his arms.
His blue gaze shifted briefly to her neck, and he imdiately noticed that the divine amber locket was indeed gone. He was about to look back up when sothing else caught his eye, a golden bracelet clasped around her wrist, the ruby set at its centre beginning to glow faintly. His brows drew together as he wondered what sothing like that was doing on his daughter’s hand.
When he looked back into her eyes, he saw the golden light within them begin to fluctuate, before finally fading as her eyes returned to their original vivid blue.
Solan was no stranger to ancient artefacts, so he recognised the bracelet imdiately. It was a device designed to siphon the wearer’s life force every ti they used their powers, a cruel tool once used to restrain powerful sorcerers or Luns, keeping them under strict control.
The question struck him sharply, ’What was such a dangerous artefact doing on her wrist?’
Such a device was not only harmful to sorcerers but to Luns as well. An average Lun would have collapsed the mont it activated, yet Evelyn was not only standing, she didn’t even appear fazed.
For the first ti, Solan looked at her with genuine interest.
He had always known she was powerful. But her true potential had remained unknown. He himself was the most powerful Lun known alive, yet the prophecy surrounding her birth had always hinted at sothing beyond even him. He had never cared to explore it....yet now, seeing her endure such an artefact without flinching made an uneasy curiosity stir within him.
Still, the mont the prophecy crossed his thoughts, a deep bitterness washed over him. The mory of his wife’s death resurfaced, along with the one truth he despised most: who Evelyn’s destined soulmate could be.
Coldness returned to his eyes. And once again, he reminded himself why it was so vital for Evelyn to marry Prince Valen...Why she must be kept far away from the vampire prince. Because he rembered the last words his wife had spoken before she died, her final plea, her final command, ’Never let Evelyn be with a vampire... or...’
He t her eyes and said, "Oh? So you believe you now know everything it takes to be a good ruler? Tell , where is it written that disrespecting the monarchy is part of being one?"
"You’ve misunderstood, Your Majesty," she replied calmly. She paused before adding, "I am only responding to how I was treated. Every action has a reaction. You made one of the most important decisions of my life without informing or consulting even once, despite it being written clearly in our constitution. You treated like a puppet, not a person. So I am simply reacting in kind. It’s as simple as that. A ruler is ant to set an example of fairness... sothing that has clearly never been the case here.
Perhaps you’ll learn that lesson along the way, since you seem to have forgotten it yourself."
"Evelyn!" Solan’s voice bood through the room, startling both Viva and Elara, who had been silently watching the father–daughter confrontation unfold like a battlefield.
The guards stationed outside snapped to alert at the sound and rushed in imdiately, ready to defend their queen if needed. But they were not the only ones drawn by the booming voice; two more figures entered the chamber with urgent steps.
When Evelyn shifted her unflinching gaze from the furious Solan to the newcors, sothing inside her stirred for the first ti since they arrived.
One of the figures was, unsurprisingly, Gideon, Solan’s ever-loyal right hand.
But the second....was the only true ally she had ever possessed in that suffocating palace, apart from her old nanny.
Her guide. Her ntor. The only person who ever treated her as more than a burden or a mistake was High Priest Septimus.
Her eyes softened, just for a fleeting mont, as she stared into his wise, silver eyes. Eyes that had witnessed her cry countless tis....that had offered her stability when her world felt upside down...that had given her shelter in that cold, lonely castle. The eyes of the one person she had trusted the most.
As if drawn by instinct, Evelyn took a small step toward Septimus.
But the mont she moved, reality struck her hard. The mory of his betrayal, of the secret he kept from her, just like the others....flashed before her. And it hurt. Gods, it hurt far worse than anything Solan or Elara had ever done to her. Her heart twisted painfully in her chest as the truth settled in...None of the people standing before her was hers. Perhaps...they never had been.
So with a heavy heart, she stepped back.
Septimus’ expression crumpled instantly, his silver eyes filling with raw hurt as he witnessed her recoil from him for the first ti she had ever pulled away in her life. It felt to him as though soone had sliced open his heart.
Evelyn steeled her heart and turned her gaze to everyone who had abruptly barged into her room. Then she faced Solan again, who was trembling with barely contained fury.
"Careful, Your Majesty," she said evenly. "You are not in your kingdom anymore to do as you please. And I am not your puppet anymore, for you to command as you wish."
Her cold blue eyes sharpened, "I am now to beco a part of the Kaine family...isn’t that right, Queen Viva?" She shifted her gaze deliberately toward Viva, forcing the queen into an uncomfortable corner.
Caught off guard, Viva’s smile twitched as she hurried to smooth over the tension. "W-why don’t we all calm down?" she suggested lightly, her voice a strained attempt at sweetness. "We do have a ball to attend, after all." She subtly reminded everyone why they were gathered here in the first place, before the situation erupted beyond control.
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