Chapter 213 Lirael Sutton

Chapter 213 Lirael Sutton
LIRA 

The dungeons were cold.

I sat on the damp stone floor, my back pressed against the rough wall, my arms wrapped around my knees. The cell was small, barely large enough to stretch out in, and the only light came from a flickering torch in the corridor beyond.

I had been here for hours.

Or perhaps it had only been minutes.

Time moved strangely in the darkness.

I thought about Cassian. About the battle. About the way he had looked at me when he left. I thought about Luna, who was probably frantic with worry. I thought about Aveline, who had promised to keep my secret of not bonding with Kael. 

I will not die here, I told myself. I will not let them kill me. I will find a way out. I will... 

Footsteps.

I looked up.

The Queen stood in the corridor, her black gown trailing behind her, her crown gleaming in the torchlight. She was smiling, a cold and cruel smile that made my blood run cold.

"Lady Lira," she said. "Or should I say Lirael Sutton?"

I did not answer.

The Queen gestured to the guard, who unlocked the cell door. She stepped inside, her heels clicking against the stone.

"I have been waiting for this moment," she said. "The moment when I finally had you where I wanted you."

"Your Majesty..." 

"Do not speak." Her voice was sharp. "You have done enough speaking. Enough lying. Enough scheming."

I fell silent.

The Queen circled me, her eyes raking over my face, my dress, my bound hands.

"I never took much notice of you," she said. "You were just another girl in the selection. Another ambitious noblewoman trying to claw her way to the top. But that day in your chambers, I saw your aura."

I felt my stomach drop.

"Your aura," she repeated. "It was strange. Wrong. There was a spirit lingering near you, a man who had once been a lord in this palace. I wondered why."

"Your Majesty..." 

"I wondered why you did not have the same aura as Lord Eaton Vale when he arrived. The coldness between the two of you. The distance." She stopped circling. "And then I started connecting the dots."

"I sent word to Vale," she continued. "I received a very interesting letter from one of the servants. A servant who detailed that Lord Vale's only granddaughter was dead."

I felt the blood drain from my face.

"I did not believe it at first," the Queen said. "Not until the servant attached a copy of her death certificate. And not until I sent a trusted advisor to check the truth. They found the tombstone. The original Lady Lira of the Vale, dead for years."

"Your Majesty..." 

"Lord Vale was too sickly and weak to confirm or deny the claims. Apparently the trip to the palace had worsened his state even more. But the evidence was clear." She smiled. "You are not Lady Lira of the Vale. You never were."

I said nothing.

"So I wanted to know who exactly you were. I had your chambers ransacked," she continued. "I spoke to the people in the palace. The librarian said you had always come to borrow books on the history of Aurelia. Reports of the palace. Records of the crown."

"Your Majesty..." 

"In your old chambers and your new chambers, we found the letter you brought with you to the palace. The one that admitted you to the selection." Her smile widened. "It was forged."

"And then another letter arrived. From Vale. The servant mentioned that a Lirael Sutton who used to be housed in the Vale estate had left around the same time the Dragon Queen Selection had begun."

She stopped in front of me.

"It is all true, is it not?"

I looked up at her.

"Yes," I said.

The Queen's eyes glittered.

"I am Lirael Sutton," I continued. "I came here to avenge my father. Lord Aidan Sutton, the man your husband executed for treason."

"Treason that he committed."

"Treason he did not commit." My voice was steady. "He was innocent. He discovered the truth about the dragons, about the old magic, about the lies your family has been telling for centuries. And you killed him for it."

The Queen's face went pale.

"You..." 

"I freed the dragon that waged war on Aurelia, Veyraxis," I continued. "I helped orchestrate the attacks with Norwyn. I wanted to see this kingdom burn."

"You..." 

"And in a way," I said, "I succeeded. Your husband is dead. Your kingdom is at war. And you will never be able to undo what I have done."

The Queen stared at me.

Her face was white.

"You will pay for this," she said finally. "You will pay for your crimes. You will die, Lirael Sutton. Slowly, painfully and horribly!"

She turned and walked out of the cell.

The door slammed shut.

I sat in the darkness, my heart pounding, my hands shaking.

I have done it, I thought. I have told her the truth. I have confessed everything.

And now I had to find a way to escape. 

But even as I thought it, I felt something else.

Relief.

The truth was finally out.

And I was no longer pretending.

I could finally speak my true name or use it. I was Lirael Sutton. The daughter of Lord Aidan Sutton.