Chapter 58
Lila
The palace looked the same, but it didn’t feel the same.
I stepped through the east entrance just after dawn, my boots silent on the polished stone. The hall was empty, save for a pair of guards posted at the end of the corridor. One of them blinked in surprise
ne saw I me but said nothing, only offered a slight nod of acknowledgment before turning his
gaze forward again.
I didn’t want attention. And I definitely didn’t
@mony. I just wanted to disappear back into my place before anyone noticed I’d ever left.
But of course, nothing here was that simple. Or easy.
By the time I reached my room, three women had
peeked around
corners, their eyes trailing me as if they could state the gossip right out of ee
The whispers started before I even touched the doorknob. My
- me.
Bers trembled just slightly. I forced myself to push through the door and lock it behind
The room felt… smaller than I remembered. My scent still clung faintly to the pillows, but the hearth had long been extinguished. My things were untouched, but the space felt less like mine now, and more like the temporary lodging it was supposed to be.
I wondered how far my ranking in this royal dating game had dropped. I could feel it in the way no one rushed to welcome me back.
Some part of me hoped that Emma would’ve been waiting, smiling. But I didn’t tell her I was leaving, or when I’d return. And I hadn’t seen her yet this morning; maybe she was still asleep.
I unpacked slowly, folding the letter from Damon and slipping it between the pages of a book. Then I stood in the middle of the room, trying to remember how to be the version of myself who left.
The one who was just starting to feel seen. To feel wanted. But I couldn’t be her anymore.
I was the girl who had stood at her mother’s bedside and promised to survive this, even if it meant lying just a little longer.
A knock at the door startled me.
I opened it to find Nora standing there, arms folded, expression unreadable. “Vanessa’s been sniffing around your room,” she said bluntly. “Trying to act like she’s not rattled, but she is.”
I nodded once. “Thanks for the warning.”
Nora nodded in return, a silent pact seeming to seal between us. “I hate you less than her.” She didn’t linger. Just turned and walked away without another word.
That was… unexpected. What wasn’t, however, was that Vanessa was watching me. Of course she was. I’d vanished with the most scrutinized weeks in the palace, and now I was back, still in the running.
planation, missed one of
Vanessa must have thought my secret had gotten out and she won. Or at least wanted to confirm. My returning likely threw her off her.
I almost had the door closed again when I decided wanted to let Emma know I was back and apologize for leaving without telling her.
I passed two candidates in the hallway on the way to Emma’s room. One smiled tightly. The other didn’t look at me at all.
The shift was subtle, but it was there, proving that whatever ground I’d gained had been cracked beneath me. And now I had to claw it back without drawing too much attention. Just enough to survive the next round or two before Vanessa went to Damon.
No one asked where I’d been. Not directly/But the glances, the hushed tones, the way conversations paused when I entered a room… that was enough to tell me the palace had moved on in my absence.
1/3
Chapter 58
I forced a smile. I pretended I was unaffected, and I wore the Elena mask that I’d worked so hard to make fit.
Because that’s what she would do; Elena Ashford would hold her nose in the air and be unaffected by whatever drama was beneath her.
I decided that if I couldn’t be chosen, then I would make damn sure I wasn’t discarded either.
It was wandering around searching for Emma that I ran into Damon.
1 found him in the west corridor, standing with one of the council advisors, half–shadowed in the archway near the war room. Damon looked the same and yet not. He stood straighter, somehow sharper. His expression was the usual cold face of a King.
The moment his gaze landed on me, the advisor melted away with a bow. Damon just stared at me, unblinking.
I forced my spine straight and walked forward.
“Your Majesty,” I said, voice low and steady. Too steady. I hated how formal it sounded. I hated how his name had some distance now.
“Elena,” he replied after a pause. His eyes flicked over me like he was checking for cracks, or injuries. “You’re back.”
I nodded. “As soon as I could.”
There was a beat of silence.
“I trust your mother is recovering,” he said. The words were careful, polite.
“Slowly,” I lied. “The healers say she’s stable now.”
Another pause. His jaw tightened. “You left without much warning. Mid–trial.”
“I left because my mother needed me,” I said, sharper than I meant to. But this, at least, was a truth.
His expression didn’t shift. If anything, it hardened. “And you returned,” he said. “Why?”
That question hit me hard than I expected.
Because I missed you.
Because your letter gave me hope.
Because I thought maybe we had something real.
Because my father will let my mother die if I don’t.
But I couldn’t say any of that. Not now when his voice had that rough edge and his eyes were already halfway to believing I didn’t want him.
“Because this is still a competition,” I said instead. “And I didn’t want to forfeit.”
Damon nodded slowly. “Of course.”
Of course.
The words grated against my honor and Ruby whimpered in my mind, a restless coil of discomfort. He doesn’t believe you.
I know.
Damon stepped toward me, and I held my breath.
But instead of reaching for me, he only brushed past–close enough that his scent nearly undid me. Then he stopped, just behind me.
Chapter 58
“You’re different,” he said quietly.
I turned slowly, pulse pounding. “So are you.”
He looked at me like he was searching for something–proof, maybe. Or weakness.
“You read my letter?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And?”
“It meant more than I can say.”
A flash of hurt passed through his expression and
“Then why does it feel like something changed?”
Because I’m still lying to you. Because I can’t stop.
“I’m glad your mother is well,” Damon said after a beat. His voice was flat now. “Rest. There are more trials ahead.”
He turned away. And just like that, he was gone.
The longing and guilt he left behind was worse than anything Vanessa had threatened me with. Because I had told myself I could survive his coldness. That I could endure his distance if it meant protecting the people I loved.
But I hadn’t counted on the way it would feel to lose him slowly while standing right in front of him.
I stood frozen in the hallway, feeling hollow. Then, without a word, I turned and walked back the way I came. Seeing Emma would have to wait.
I returned to the palace, but I didn’t know if there would be anything of me left when this was through.
AD
