Chapter 125: Chapter 126: Lena Before Elara

Lena’s POV

They came for me in the evening.

Not roughly. Not under guard in the formal sense. But brought. There was no version of Corvus arriving at my door that felt like a choice. He knocked once. He looked at me. He said, “Come with me.” And I went.

Because what else was I going to do? Run? Fight? Lie? I had been lying for months. I was tired of lying.

The corridors were empty. The palace was quiet. Corvus walked ahead of me. He did not look back. He did not speak. He just walked, and I followed, and my footsteps echoed on the stone.

I knew where we were going before we got there. Not the council chamber. Not the small sitting room where Elara met with advisors. Her private study. The room where she worked alone, where the books were marked and the papers were real and there was no performance of the official.

Corvus stopped at the door. He looked at me. His face was still. Unreadable.

“She’s waiting,” he said.

Then he left.

I stood in the corridor for a moment. My hand was on the door. I did not knock. I just stood there, breathing, trying to find something steady inside myself. I did not find it.

I opened the door. I walked in.

Elara was standing at the window when I entered. She did not turn around. Her back was to me. The light from the window fell across her shoulders, her hair, the crown she was still wearing.

I stopped just inside the door. I did not sit. I did not speak. I waited.

The silence stretched.

She turned.

Her face was tired. Her eyes were sad. She looked at me not like a queen looking at a servant, but like a friend looking at someone she thought she knew.

“I know,” she said quietly.

I said nothing.

“I know you were betraying me.” Her voice was soft. Hurt. “You sneaked in to read my books. You listened in on Corvus and me. You passed the information along. I know all of it.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it.

“I know what you told Malakor before that.” She paused. “About the pregnancy. About Kaelen. About everything.”

“So what now?” I said. My voice came out harder than I intended. “You brought me here to watch me cry?”

“I brought you here because I want to understand.” She stepped closer. “Lena, you were my best friend. My only real friend. I trusted you with everything. My fears. My hopes. My secrets. And I still don’t understand why. Your changed.”

“I changed so you wanna know why?” I laughed. It was bitter. “You want to know why?”

“Yes. Please. Help me understand.”

“Because you took everything from me.” The words came out like poison. “You sit on that throne like you deserve it. Like you earned it. While people like me clean up your messes and carry your secrets and pretend to be your friend. Do you know what that feels like? To watch someone else get everything you ever wanted and not even notice that you wanted it?”

Elara’s face crumpled. “Where’s this coming from Lena”

“You never see past yourself. You never look at me. Not really.” I stepped closer. “I was your handmaiden. Your servant. Your shadow. I was never your friend. I was just there. Just convenient. Just useful.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true.” My voice was rising. “When was the last time you asked me how I was doing? When was the last time you cared about anything I wanted? You take and you take and you take, and you never give anything back.”

Elara’s eyes were wet. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry. I never knew you felt that way”

“Sorry doesn’t fix it. Sorry doesn’t give me back the years I wasted. Sorry doesn’t give me back him.”

“Him?”

“Kaelen.” His name came out like a wound.

Elara frowned. Confused. Genuinely confused. “I don’t understand”

I laughed. It was ugly. “He was mine before you spread your legs for him, Your Majesty.”

Elara’s face went red. “What are you saying Lena,”

“How dare you think you can question my decision by bringing me here when you’re nothing but a pregnant whore carrying a bastard.” I stepped closer. “You deserve to be stripped naked and whipped through the streets. Let everyone see what kind of queen they have.”

The slap came out of nowhere. Elara’s hand cracked across my face. My head snapped to the side. My cheek burned.

I turned back slowly. I looked at her. And I laughed again.

Then I slapped her back.

The sound echoed off the walls. Elara stumbled. Her hand went to her cheek. Her eyes were wide. Shocked. She stared at me like she had never seen me before.

“You hit me,” she whispered.

“You hit me first. I looked at her. At her face, her red cheek, her shocked eyes. At the woman who had taken everything from me without even knowing.

“Do you even know the truth about Kaelen and what he means to me?”

Elara frowned. “What?”

“You heard me.” My voice was shaking now. “Do you even know? Do you have any idea what he means to me? How long I have waited? How much I have sacrificed? I gave him everything. My loyalty. My silence. My body. And he never even looked at me the way he looks at you.”

Elara stared at me. Her face was confused. Genuinely confused. “What are you talking about?”

“You stole him from me.” The words came out raw, cracked, broken. “I knew him first. I loved him first. I waited for him for years. And then you came along with your crown and your throne and your pretty face, and he forgot I existed.”

Elara took a step back. Her hands went to her sides. Her eyes were wide.

“What?” she said again. I took a deep breath and swallowed, ready to pour out everything I had kept to myself.

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