Chapter 107 CHAPTER 107
The drive back to Silverpine stretched on longer than usual.
The road wound through familiar terrain - trees thickening as the city thinned, the air growing cooler with every mile - but Sebastian barely noticed any of it. His hands rested on the steering wheel, steady but tense, his eyes fixed on the road ahead while his thoughts replayed the day in relentless fragments.
Lisa standing at the front of the classroom.
The principal saying her name.
The silence that followed.
Princess Lisa Ashvale.
The words still felt wrong in his head, like they belonged to someone else entirely. Every time he tried to fit them together - Lisa and Cindy, servant and princess - his thoughts jammed, refusing to align.
Beside him, Sarah filled the silence.
She talked about cheer practice, about how exhausting it had been after the break, about new routines and formations they were expected to learn. Her voice was bright, animated, deliberately normal, as though the day had been nothing more than a mild inconvenience.
“I tried to find you at lunch,” she said after a while. “But by the time we finished practice and got to the cafeteria, almost everyone had already left.”
Sebastian didn’t respond right away.
“It was just us cheerleaders in there,” Sarah continued, glancing at him. “I thought maybe you’d gone early.”
“I didn’t go,” he said finally.
She frowned slightly. “You didn’t eat?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He tightened his grip on the wheel. “I wasn’t hungry.”
Sarah studied his profile. “You’ve been like this all day.”
He didn’t answer.
The silence that followed was heavy, uncomfortable, pressing in on both sides of the car. Sarah shifted in her seat, clearly deciding whether to push further.
“I heard the princess joined your class,” she said lightly, as though the subject had just occurred to her. “Everyone’s talking about it.”
Sebastian’s jaw clenched.
“Is she really as beautiful as people say?” Sarah went on. “Did she come with a guard and everything?”
He exhaled sharply. “Sarah.”
“What?” she asked innocently. “I’m just curious. Were you able to speak to her?”
Her lips curved into a small smile. “It would be nice if she liked you. If she’s friends with you, then she’ll probably be friendly with me too.”
Something snapped.
“Will you stop it?” Sebastian said suddenly, his voice sharp.
Sarah blinked. “Stop what?”
“Everything,” he said, anger flaring hot and fast. “You always do this. Everything is about what you want. You need me to be friends with the princess so you can benefit from it.”
“That’s not fair,” Sarah protested. “I was just…”
“Do you even know who she is?” he cut in.
Sarah hesitated. “She’s the Princess of Mooncrest. Everyone knows that.”
Sebastian let out a bitter laugh. “That’s not who she really is.”
Sarah tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“If you knew who she was,” he said tightly, “you wouldn’t be talking about wanting to be her friend.”
Sarah opened her mouth, then closed it again. The words slipped out before she could stop them.
“Of course I know.”
Sebastian’s eyes flicked toward her. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “I didn’t say anything.”
Sarah turned her gaze back to the road, her expression smooth and unreadable.
She had meant every word.
She had known long before today. Long before Lunaris. Long before Sebastian stood frozen in that classroom, staring at the truth he had refused to see.
Cindy had never disappeared from Sarah’s awareness. The moment the servant girl vanished from Silverpine and whispers of a reunited princess reached the darker channels of the world, the truth had been impossible to miss. Lisa Ashvale and Cindy had always been the same girl. The name had changed. The power had surfaced. Nothing else had.
Sarah had never been surprised.
What mattered now was not what she knew - but what Sebastian believed she knew.
Letting him realize she understood the truth before he did would only strip her of control. Sebastian was already unstable, already cracking under the weight of his mistakes. Knowledge, in moments like this, was not something to share. It was something to hold.
So she played her role carefully. Curious. Interested. A step behind.
And she said nothing more.
The rest of the drive passed in silence.
No music. No conversation. Just the hum of the engine and the weight of everything left unsaid.
By the time they reached the edge of Silverpine, the sun had begun to dip low in the sky, casting long shadows across the road. Sebastian pulled into the driveway without a word, cut the engine, and stepped out of the car.
He didn’t wait for Sarah.
He walked straight into the house, dropping his bag onto the couch as if it weighed nothing at all. The familiar scent of home greeted him - wood smoke, pine, something warm from the kitchen—but it did nothing to settle his nerves.
His mother appeared almost immediately.
She took one look at his face and frowned. “Are you feeling unwell again?”
She reached up instinctively, pressing her hand gently to his temple, checking for fever the way she had when he was younger.
“I’m fine,” Sebastian said, pulling back slightly.
She studied him carefully. “Then why the long face?”
He hesitated.
The words sat heavy in his chest, pressing upward, demanding to be spoken.
“I found her,” he said finally.
Sarah, who had just stepped into the room behind him, frowned. “Found who?”
Sebastian swallowed.
“My mate,” he said quietly. “Cindy.”
The room fell silent.