Chapter 109: The Breath Held Too Long
Lyria's POV
Silence followed after the baron's words.
It sat in the hall like something alive now—something watching, something waiting for the smallest wrong movement to justify what came next.
And I—I was at the center of it.
I could feel it in the way they looked at me.
Like the court itself could not decide what I was supposed to be anymore, and so it kept looking until something gave them permission to understand.
I wanted to tell the baron he had spoken the truth; I wanted to say something sharp, something immediate, something that would cut through this entire absurd performance and return me to the obscurity I had always known.
But I did not move.
Because movement was dangerous now.
Even breath felt like a decision I could not afford to make lightly.
The Queen's hand remained on mine.
A quiet reminder that I was not alone in this silence.
Or rather—that I was not allowed to be.
