Chapter 174
ATASHA’S POV- 1 day before the testing
The pain came fast.
It started in my chest, like a sharp, searing pull that spread like fire beneath my skin. My breath hitched, and before I could understand what was happening, the heat turned violent. It crawled up my arms, biting through every nerve until I gasped.
The stone slipped from my hands and hit the floor with a dull sound, but the pain didn’t stop. It was still inside me. Something was moving… inside me. I could feel it sliding beneath my skin, tracing through my veins, pushing toward my heart.
I staggered back, clutching my chest. The pulse under my palm was too fast, too heavy. It wasn’t mine. It was something else, something that shouldn’t be there.
“Cassian-” I tried to speak, but my voice broke. The air didn’t reach my lungs. Every breath came shallow, strangled.
I felt him move toward me, heard the scrape of his boots, the sharp intake of his breath, but it already sounded far away. Like an echo down a long tunnel.
“Atasha.” His voice was closer now, rough, urgent. “Stay with me.”
I tried to answer, to tell him I was fine, that I could fight it, but I couldn’t move. The pain sharpened again, this time twisting, like claws dragging through the inside of my ribs. My knees gave out.
Cassian caught me before I hit the ground. I felt his hands on my shoulders, his voice calling my name again, but it faded under the noise in my head. The hum of the stones grew louder, drowning out everything else. The chamber spun, the light bending until it was too bright to see.
Something inside me screamed, not in pain, but in resistance. My power flared, instinctive, trying to burn through whatever had forced its way in. I tried to push back, but my strength slipped like sand through my fingers.
“Cassian—” The name barely left my lips before the pressure crushed the air from my chest. My vision blurred. His face was the last thing I saw, the shape of him leaning over me, eyes wide with alarm, voice breaking into a shout.
Then everything went black.
…
DAY OF THE TESTING- MAYTRON YARA’S POV
“Is the Lord not here yet?” Matron Yara asked, her tone calm but her eyes scanning the restless sea of faces before the stage.
Her earlier words had managed to hold the crowd together… barely. But now, that fragile calm was breaking apart again. The murmurs were louder and had become sharper. She could see the tension rippling through
them like a warning before a storm. Some men at the front gripped the wooden rails, muttering under their breath. Others craned their necks toward the direction of the keep, waiting for a glimpse of the Lord or his
consort.
Stupid, she thought, watching their faces. Stupid and reckless.
“Matron,” Halden Morrow’s voice came from her right, carrying that familiar drawl that always grated on her nerves. “You seem rather concerned about the Lord’s absence. You don’t trust him to handle his own consort?”
His smirk made it clear he was enjoying himself.
Yara turned her head slowly toward him. “What I don’t trust,” she said evenly. “Is the crowd’s patience.”
Halden’s grin widened. “Ah, so it’s not the people you doubt, it’s the Lord. Interesting.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You twist words as easily as you twist facts, Halden,”
He shrugged. “Someone has to. You’ve been doing enough twisting for both of us lately.”
She rolled her eyes and exhaled through her nose. Since Halden’s return to the council, he’d made it his personal duty to undermine her at every turn. Every suggestion, every proposal, he’d find a way to counter it. But it wasn’t just him anymore.
Oren Frostgate had quietly stopped supporting her motions last week, using “neutrality” as an excuse. Even blunt Ilya Keldar, who hated politics and always claimed to care more for his mines than the council’s games, had suddenly started voting with Halden.
And now, even Sister Veris had withdrawn. The woman, who once spoke highly of her efforts in the infirmary, barely met her eyes these days. The change was quiet but unmistakable. The same people who once praised her for “preserving order” now seemed eager to distance themselves.
All because of that woman.
Because of Lady Atasha.
Yara’s fingers curled around the edge of her cloak. The woman had turned the entire North against her without even trying. Her kindness, her “miracles,” her soft smiles that made even the harshest soldier kneel, Atasha had turned public favor into armor, and now even the council hid behind it.
When Yara finally spoke. “I am not worried about the Lord,” she said. “I am worried about Lady Kenneth, who has been waiting here for the consort’s arrival.”
Halden gave a short laugh. “Is Lady Kenneth’s position more important than the Lord of the North?”
He turned toward the envoy sitting a few paces away and gave a shallow bow. “Forgive me, my lady,” he said, his voice smooth, almost respectful. “I have all the regard in the world for the Crown and its representatives. But this is not the right time for impatience. The Lord will arrive when he decides to. He will arrive when it is time.”
Lady Kenneth didn’t answer. Her expression didn’t change, but the way her jaw shifted said she’d heard every
word.
Matron Yara gritted her teeth but said nothing. She could already feel the tension spreading again. The people’s anger hung in the air. From where she was sitting, she could feel that the people had become restless and unpredictable. Every whisper from the crowd grew sharper, angrier.
She glanced around, and a chill crawled up her spine. Some of them were starting to move closer to the stage. A few shouted the consort’s name. Others cursed under their breath, their voices rising.
If Cassian didn’t arrive soon, if someone didn’t take control, Yara knew exactly how quickly a crowd like this could turn.
They wouldn’t listen to reason. They would attack.
And this time, it wouldn’t be witches they were after. It would be Lady Kenneth.
Then suddenly, the swell of voices broke against the square like a wave, the sound of wheels cut through it.
A carriage turned onto the main thoroughfare at a clipped pace, iron-rimmed wheels grinding over the packed snow. The guards at the outer cordon immediately snapped to attention, spears crossed, then lifted as they recognized the driver Lieutenant Rio, next to him was Lieutenant Grace and Physician Mendez.
Almost immediately, a second rank formed without being told. The crowd surged a step forward, then two steps back when the front line of soldiers shoved them off the rails.
Yara’s chin lifted.
“Finally,” Halden muttered.
Yara didn’t need to say anything as the guards were already in their positions.
The driver hauled the team to a stop at the base of the stage. Steam rose from the horses’ backs in pale clouds. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Even the wind seemed to wait as the square tightened as if drawn on a string.
Then Lieutenant Grace dropped from the rear step, glanced once toward the stage, then reached for the latch.
The carriage door swung out.
Every voice in the square died at once. Thousands held their breath as the figure inside shifted toward the light.
