The sea stretches endlessly before us, a vast expanse of silver under the moonlight. For five days, this boat has carried us across restless waters—carried me from pain to purpose.
I’ve said nothing. Not because there’s nothing to say, but because words cannot contain the fire that now burns inside me.
Dylan sits at the other end of the boat. He hasn’t spoken either, not since that night. But he hasn’t left my side. Even when I screamed in my sleep, even when I woke up in cold sweat whispering my mother’s name with venom in my throat—he stayed.
My wounds are gone, but I feel like I’m stitched together with fury.
The lies.
The betrayal.
The blood.
It replays in my mind like a cursed lullaby: my father’s murder, Dylan’s death, my own role in both... and above it all, Queen Lucinda’s f
