Chapter 96 Ninety mine
“Did you hear what they said about you, Sienna? They’re ready to strip you of the crown.”
Her name cracked through the silence like a shard of ice. She didn’t turn immediately. She stood at the high window of the council wing, hands gripping the stone ledge so tightly her knuckles blanched. The moonlight brushed her cheek, softening the exhaustion hiding beneath her calm.
“Say it again,” she murmured, though her voice was steady.
Mira swallowed hard behind her. “They want to dethrone you tonight.”
That did it.
Sienna turned.
Her silver-gray eyes, once gentle, now glowed with a cold light. She moved toward her sister slowly, her expression unreadable, her long dark hair cascading like a storm cloud around her shoulders.
“All of them?” she asked.
“Almost,” Mira whispered. “Not everyone agrees, but…” She looked down, unable to meet Sienna’s gaze. “Some are saying your judgment is compromised. That Ryder still has influence over you.”
Sienna’s jaw clenched. “They think I’m weak.”
“They think you’re in love.”
The words hit like a blade.
Her breath caught but she forced it steady. “And that makes me unfit to rule?”
“In their eyes,” Mira said gently, “yes.”
Sienna inhaled slowly, feeling the weight of the council wing pressing around her, the cold marble floors, the towering pillars carved with histories of rulers who never hesitated. She had tried to lead with fairness, compassion, strength… but in the end, the whispers had become knives.
“Where are they now?” she asked.
“In the council chamber,” Mira said. “They think you don’t know.”
Sienna’s lips curved into a bitter, humorless smile. “They underestimate me. How quaint.”
Mira stepped closer, worry etched across her young features. “You have to be careful. They’re scared. They don’t trust Ryder. They don’t trust the curse. They don’t trust what happened at the Moon Temple. And they think you’ll choose him over the kingdom.”
Sienna didn’t answer.
She walked toward the long wooden table in the center of the room, her fingers trailing over its polished edge. The velvet-covered chairs, once symbols of authority, now felt like vultures circling her fate.
“Did they mention his name?” Sienna asked.
Mira hesitated. “Yes.”
Sienna’s gaze sharpened. “And what did they say?”
“They said…” Mira swallowed hard. “They said Ryder is a danger. That as long as he’s alive, the curse will feed on you. They said the only way to keep you on the throne is if you cut ties with him completely.”
Silence rolled through the room.
Heavy. Suffocating.
Sienna closed her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was almost too soft to hear. “They want me to destroy him.”
“No!” Mira said quickly. “Not destroy. Just… renounce him. Publicly. They believe the packs need reassurance that you’re not bound to him anymore.”
Sienna laughed once, quiet, sharp, filled with disbelief. “Reassurance.”
She turned and walked toward the open doorway. Mira followed her, steps light, nervous.
“Where are you going?”
“To listen,” Sienna said. “To hear exactly how far their betrayal has grown.”
“Sienna,” Mira whispered, grabbing her arm, “please… your heart is already breaking. Don’t let them twist the knife.”
Sienna looked down at her sister’s small hand on her sleeve. Mira had always been soft, gentle, hopeful, everything Sienna had lost in herself.
Her voice was quiet. “My heart broke long before tonight.”
She slipped free from Mira’s grasp and left the room.
The corridor stretching toward the council chamber felt too bright, too polished. Every torch cast tall shadows against the gold-framed tapestries of former rulers, wolves with silver crowns, kings who tore their enemies apart with their bare hands, queens who ruled with iron mercy.
Sienna walked with cold purpose, her cloak trailing behind her like a phantom. Guards nodded, bowing their heads respectfully. They had no idea that within these walls, their queen was moments from being torn apart by the very people sworn to advise her.
She reached the chamber door.
Voices leaked through the wood, muffled, tense, angry.
“she’s too close to him, ”
“the curse grows stronger”
“ if she won’t sever the bond, she’ll doom the entire kingdom, ”
“She must renounce him publicly.”
“She has to choose us, not him.”
“She’s becoming a liability.”
Sienna’s heart stuttered once.
Then she pushed the door open just enough to listen.
The chamber stretched wide, filled with flickering lanterns and the thick scent of incense. The council sat around the crescent-shaped table, Elder Theron, Elder Cassian, High Judge Alera, and seven others. Their robes shimmered with symbols of rank, authority… fear.
Theron stood. His voice cut through the room like a blade. “If she won’t let him go, then she cannot lead.”
“She will,” Alera argued softly. “She has to. Sienna is wiser than we think.”
“And if she refuses?” Theron countered. “Would you trust her to make decisions for the realm when she can’t even control her emotions?”
Sienna’s grip tightened on the doorframe.
“She is our queen,” Alera said sharply. “She’s carried burdens none of you would survive.”
“And yet,” Theron said coldly, “she’s bending under those burdens now.”
Sienna forced her breath to steady.
Theron continued. “By sunrise, she must choose. Ryder… or the crown.”
“And if she chooses him?” someone whispered.
“Then she will be removed,” Theron said.
A hush fell.
Removed.
Their queen. Their savior. The woman who rebuilt the realm from ash.
Removed.
Sienna stepped back from the door, her pulse pounding in her ears. Her vision blurred with the weight of their words. She felt the stone beneath her feet shift like she was standing on the edge of a cliff.
Mira rushed up beside her. “You heard them?”
“Yes,” Sienna whispered.
“What will you do?” Mira asked, voice trembling.
Sienna swallowed the ache clawing up her throat. She stared straight ahead, eyes fierce with the storm gathering inside her.
“I will save him,” she said. “No matter what it costs me.”
Mira shook her head. “Not like this, Sienna. If you renounce him, ”
“I’m not renouncing him because they want me to,” Sienna said, voice hardening. “I’m doing it because Lunaris cursed him. Because if he comes near me again, he dies.”
Her hands shook, but she curled them into fists.
“I won’t let him die for me.”
“Sienna, ”
“I am Queen,” Sienna said softly, almost to herself. “But I’m also a woman who loves him. And right now, that love is killing him.”
She walked past Mira, around the corner, to a solitary balcony overlooking the Pilgrim Steps. Her gaze swept over the massive open square where crowds gathered for royal announcements. The moon was bright, resting heavy above the horizon. Banners fluttered in the wind.
Tomorrow, she would stand there.
Tomorrow, she would shatter her own heart.
Her fingers touched the cool stone railing. She breathed deeply, then whispered to the night air, her voice breaking.
“I will live. He will live. Even if it means losing each other.”
A rustle behind her made her turn sharply.
A dark figure stood in the shadows, hooded, silent, watching.
She stepped forward. “Who’s there?”
The figure vanished before she could blink, leaving only a tremor in the air.
Sienna closed her eyes tightly.
The realm was unraveling.
And she was unraveling with it.