Lyanna's POV
"No," I said through Seraphine's mouth. "Absolutely not. I'm not stealing someone's entire life."
But even as I spoke, I felt the dark magic coiling around my thoughts like silk. Whispering. Tempting. You deserve this. You deserve power. You deserve respect.
The Shadow King smiled like he could hear my internal battle. "The mix hesitates. How brave. But tell me, girl—when Prince Cassian announced his betrothal, where was that nobility? Where was that fairness?"
The words hit their goal. I remembered that day with clear clarity—watching from the balcony as Cassian crowned another woman. The way my heart had broken. The way I'd run, pregnant and scared, into the wilderness.
"That's different," I managed.
"Is it?" The Shadow King circled me slowly. "Or is the only change that now you have the chance to take back what was stolen? To become the princess everyone said you'd never be?"
