Chapter 115 -Avianna-

Chapter 115 -Avianna-
\-Avianna-

The image refuses to leave me. Caylix stands only a few feet away, close enough that I could reach out and touch him.

He's alive.

Relief had flooded through me the instant I'd seen him. Then he'd smiled. Not the smile that belonged to me, not the smile I'd watched slowly grow over thirteen years.

A polite smile.

The kind you offer a stranger in passing. The kind that says I'm sorry, I think you've mistaken me for someone else.

It hurts. Gods...

It hurts far more than I expected it to, but she won’t break me this time. Caylix isn't the same person he was 13 years ago. He was able to resist her dark magic in the cellars, so I think she is playing my deepest fears against me.

Elise watches my face with quiet satisfaction, mistaking my silence for surrender.

Good. Let her. Pain and panic have never been the same thing. I let my breathing grow uneven, just enough for her to feel the fear she expects to find. My heartbeat follows, quickening at precisely the moments she leans closer. Every reaction is real enough to be believable.

Because some of it is real.

The thought of Caylix looking at me and seeing nothing but a stranger had found a place inside me I hadn't known existed.

That wasn't part of the act. But neither was it the whole truth.

"There you are," Elise murmurs, her voice rich with satisfaction. "I knew I'd find the place where you break."

I lower my eyes, allowing my shoulders to tense ever so slightly.

If she wants to believe she's won… Then she can. I finally understand what the High Priestess had been trying to teach me. It was never about controlling the visions, it was about controlling myself.

The visions simply followed wherever my mind wandered.

If I could choose my thoughts… I could choose what she found.

So instead of reaching for Caylix… I reach for home. The gardens outside my chambers in Caelthar… The old stone fountain that never quite stopped dripping… The roses my mother planted before I was born… The cool marble beneath my bare feet on summer mornings… Meaningless memories.

Safe memories.

I build them carefully, one after another, placing them between Elise and everything that truly matters. She watches me for another long moment.

Something flickers across her face. Confusion… Only for an instant, then it's gone.

"So disciplined," she says softly.

"I expected you to be screaming by now."

"I considered it." I keep my voice small.

Exactly what she expects from a frightened twenty-one-year-old queen standing alone before the most dangerous witch in history.

"It didn't seem like it would accomplish much."

She laughs.

The sound echoes strangely through the vision.

"Oh, Avianna."

She moves closer to me, still holding my wrist, still convinced she's leading this conversation.

"I've spent only a few moments inside your mind..."

Her smile widens.

"...and already I know you better than you know yourself."

I don't answer, because the silence forces her to keep talking.

And every word she speaks… Every heartbeat she spends studying the tiny corner of my mind I've chosen to reveal...

Is another heartbeat she isn't asking herself the one question she should have the moment I appeared.

Why this room? Why now?

She believes she chose this encounter, she believes she caught me making a mistake.

I let her believe it. Because if she realizes the truth… If she realizes I walked into her chamber on purpose...

Then she'll stop looking at me, and start looking for Caylix. And she can’t do that yet. Just a little longer.

Elise studies me. The satisfaction slowly drains from her expression. Something isn't right, she can feel it.

"You aren't fighting me."

I offer a timid shrug.

"I don't think I'd win."

"No..." Her voice is quieter now. "You wouldn't."

Another long silence settles between us. She searches my face, her grip still firm around my wrist.

Then… Her brow furrows.

"You aren't asking about him."

My heart gives one hard thud. Of course she noticed. She caught herself before she celebrated too soon. Elise never stopped watching.

"You've hardly thought about him at all."

Her eyes narrow.

"Why?"

I don't answer.

"What are you hiding?"

I lower my gaze, letting my shoulders sag just enough to keep the illusion alive.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Liar."

The word isn't angry, it's curious. She tilts her head.

Then, he looks past me. As though listening to something only she can hear.

The smile disappears from her face.

"No." She whispers it to herself. "No..."

Her grip on my wrist tightens. Then her eyes snap back to mine.

"You came looking for me."

I say nothing.

"You wanted me distracted."

A moment passes as understanding crashes across her face.

"Caylix."

She spins toward the chamber door.

Her expression hardens.

"No."

The word is almost a growl now.

I can't help it… I laugh. She freezes. Slowly… Very slowly… She turns back to me.

"You think this is funny?"

"No." I meet her eyes. "I think… you underestimated me."

Silence.

"You spent all this time believing I had made a mistake."

I shake my head.

"But I was just the distraction."

Real anger flashes across her face.

"You let me into your mind."

I smile.

"Yes." I tilt my head. "Only a very small part of it.”

I watch understanding spread across her face as she silently retraces every moment since I entered the vision.

"You..." Her voice trails off. She looks at me with something I never expected to see. Doubt. I meet her gaze.

"You've been inside my mind this entire time."

I smile.

"And somehow..."

I let the silence stretch just long enough.

"...you still never realized you were exactly where I wanted you."

Her eyes widen as the pieces begin falling into place.

"You weren't trying to escape."

"No."

"You wanted me looking at you."

I don't answer, I don't need to.

"Caylix..."

She breathes his name again. 

I nod once.

"You've spent so long believing you're always the smartest person in the room..."

I take one slow step backward.

"...that you stopped looking for anyone clever enough to outplay you."

She stares at me. Still trying to calculate how much time she's lost, how far behind she already is. Then her fingers slip from my wrist.

Not because she's finished with me.

Because she suddenly has somewhere far more important to be.

She knows whatever Caylix has done… He's done it while she was distracted with me.