Chapter 50
Chapter 50
Lila
KR93%
The dress hung on the armoire door like a question I didn’t know how to answer.
I stared at it while the light shifted across the room, dragging the minutes toward a dinner I was not ready for
It all felt surreal. Like I’d dreamed the note and was about to wake up to it being some cruel joke.
But it was real. Still pressed under the pillow, the ink still sharp, the edges still warm from how many times I’d held it.
You said I don’t see you. Maybe you’re right. But I want to.
That was the part that undid me. Not the invitation. Not the location or even the fact that he’d chosen me and only me. It was the want in it. The quiet request of a man who had every right to command but chose not to.
I wasn’t used to kindness coming without strings. And I sure as hell didn’t know what to do with it now.
A knock came at the door. A soft rapping that could only be one person.
“Come in,” I said, throat tight.
Emma slipped inside, a bundle of fabric tucked over one arm, hair braided into a crown. “You’re not dressed yet.”
“I’m not sure I can do this,” I admitted.
“You don’t have to,” she said automatically, but then looked at me more closely. “But you definitely want to.”
I pressed my hand over my stomach. “I don’t even know what I want anymore.”
Emma moved to the bed and laid out what she’d brought: a silver wrap, a little glass vial of shimmer dust, and a hairpin that sparkled like frost. Not Natalie’s. This one was simple and curved, shaped like a silver wolf with tiny stars dangling from it.
“I thought this might suit you better,” she said, placing it gently on the vanity.
I didn’t trust my voice, so I just nodded.
Emma moved behind me and began working through my hair. Her fingers were deft, gentle, but the silence between us swelled until it broke with a question.
“Are you scared?” she asked softly.
I met her gaze in the mirror. “Of everything.”
“I don’t think he’s going to hurt you, Elena.”
I gave a hollow laugh. “No. Just ruin me in every other way.”
Emma didn’t argue. She just worked the last wave into place, then stepped around to dust shimmer across my collones. “You don’t look ruined,” she said. “You look like you’re about to burn down a kingdom and run off through the woods with your man.”
“That’s the problem.”
She laughed–then blushed suddenly, looking down at her hands.
I narrowed my eyes. “What?”
Chapter 50
“Nothing.”
“Emma.”
She fiddled with the edge of the shawl. “Okay. Maybe something.”
I tilted my head.
“There was someone,” she admitted. “At the banquet. I didn’t mean to he just started talking to me. He’s… a noble. From a Southern territory. Ha cand looked like a wildflower in a palace full of glass roses.”
“That’s a terrible line,” I said, but I was smiling.
Emma groaned, laughing. “It was. But I think it worked.”
I looked at her reflection. “Tell me about this mystery man with the bad pick up lines. Distract me before I walk to my potential doom.”
She blushed. “He’s not an Alpha. He’s… someone from the noble houses. I don’t even know if he likes me. He probably flirts with every girl that walks past. But when he looked at me, it was instant attraction.”
My chest ached at the familiarity of that, and I sobered a little. “So, you’re not here for Darnon?”
She shook her head. “I never was. My father had to send one of us and I wanted to see if something else might happen for me. And when I wasn’t feeling that pull towards the King, I didn’t want you to be alone in this disaster or a dating game.”
That last part hit me harder than it should’ve. I blinked quickly, then took her hand. “Thank you.”
Emma squeezed it back. “Go. Even if it’s just dinner. Even if it’s a mistake. Go, and make him beg for it.”
I reached out and took her hand. “Thank you.”
She nodded. “Besides, if I leave now, who’s going to make sure you don’t bolt through a hedge mid–trial?”
“I still might.”
She smiled, then bent to kiss the top of my head.
“You’re not alone, Elena,” she whispered.
I nodded, my heart cracking at lying to my only friend. I took comfort in the fact that she did know the real me, in almost everything but name.
I gave Emma’s hand a squeeze and then squeezed into the dress she picked out.
Soft, silken fabric hugged my frame as I smoothed the skirts with trembling fingers. The dark blue shimmered under the lights, catching on every breath i -took like the gown itself was holding its breath, waiting.
I sat back down on the cushioned stool, fingers brushing over the combs and pins scattered across the vanity. Ev delicate–like a shrine built for someone else.
ung in this room felt suddenly too
Elena would’ve known how to wield this look. How to walk into that conservatory with her chin high and her intentions sharp. I was still figuring out how to breathe around Damon.
“Okay, I’m gonna say something you’re not allowed to take the wrong way,” Emma said from behind me. I met her eyes in the mirror.
She was perched on the edge of my bed, legs crossed, hair now piled in a loose twist like she’d been practicing updos again. She looked amused. Or trying to be.
“You look like you might either pass out or set the palace on fire,” she said.
Chapter 50
I laughed–an actual laugh, startled from somewhere deep in my chest.
“I might,” I said. “Honestly, it could go either way.”
Emma stood and came to stand behind me. She adjusted a strand of hair that had slipped free, her touch gentle.
“You don’t have to be perfect, you know,” she said. “You just have to be yourself.”
“I don’t know what that means anymore.” The admission whispered out of my without thought.
“It means maybe this isn’t a test.” She gave a faint smile. “Maybe it’s a chance.”
The chime sounded from the hallway. Soft and deep–a bell toll to mark the hour. Emma stepped back and gave me one last look. “You’ve got this, het stuff.”
I swallowed hard and stood. My palms were already damp. The letter still ghosted in my fingers, but I didn’t need to read it again.
I remembered every word.
Come to the conservatory. No trial, just you, and me, and the truth between us.
I slipped out the door in silence, each step taking me farther from the girl who had once hidden in the corners of her Packhouse, afraid to be seen.
Tonight, I was stepping into the light. Into something that could undo me. Or save me.
And I had no idea which one I wanted more.
