Chapter 130: Princess & Power

Elara:

Jasper was back to his usual form after resting for only one day, and if I hadn’t known what had happened to him, I might have believed nothing had happened at all.

The healers had done an incredible job. There wasn’t a single mark left from the twenty lashes, and Jasper seemed almost annoyingly determined to make sure I knew it. Every time I looked at him with even the slightest trace of concern, he would casually assure me that he was completely fine, that he felt no pain whatsoever, and that there wasn’t even a trace of a whip wound left on his body.

"Elara, I’m perfectly fine," he told me for what had to be the tenth time that morning, looking more amused than annoyed by my silence.

I only nodded because there was no point arguing with him, but his words did nothing to lessen the guilt sitting heavily inside my chest. I knew that just because his back was healed now didn’t mean those lashes hadn’t hurt when they landed. The healers could erase wounds, but they couldn’t erase the fact that someone had been forced to endure twenty strikes because of a decision he didn’t even make.

Still, I didn’t put on a dramatic apology act around Jasper because I knew exactly what would happen if I did. He would immediately try to reassure me, tell me it wasn’t my fault, and somehow end up feeling guilty himself for making me feel guilty. There was no point in that cycle.

If I truly wanted things to change, if I genuinely wanted to become strong enough to protect the people who mattered to me, then I couldn’t spend my time drowning in regret over every mistake I’d made. I needed to learn from them.

And after meeting Darren Valemont, I had finally realized something I hadn’t understood before.

Magic alone wouldn’t make me strong enough to get revenge on the people who had destroyed my life. Unlocking my seal, mastering my elements, learning combat and surviving attacks would certainly help, but power wasn’t limited to what I could summon with my hands.

If I wanted to stand against people like Darren Valemont, against whoever was hiding behind the attacks on me, against the forces that had taken everything from me, then I needed authority. I needed money, connections, information, influence, allies, and the ability to make people listen when I spoke.

I needed to become strong as a person, not merely strong as a supernatural.

For the first time since discovering that I was Princess Eleanora Argentis, I stopped seeing the title as nothing more than an unwanted weight someone had thrown onto my shoulders on the worst night of my life.

I had spent weeks resenting the crown I had never asked for, the expectations I had never wanted, and the strange world that suddenly insisted I belonged to it. But Darren Valemont had shown me something far more important. The title that had been forced upon me could also become my greatest weapon.

I was the lost Princess of Starfall. Whether I liked it or not, that name carried weight. People bowed because of it. Nobles would listen because of it. Doors would open because of it. And if there were people powerful enough to hurt me simply because of who I was, then I could use that same identity to build power of my own.

These people wanted me to be their Princess? Fine. Then I would become one. Not the obedient, decorative Princess they expected, but one who understood exactly what her title was worth and knew how to use it.

Meanwhile, the academy had decided that my life wasn’t dramatic enough without providing an audience for it.

Rumors followed me everywhere after the ridiculous number of incidents I had somehow managed to become involved in since arriving at Moonveil. Students whispered whenever I passed, conversations quieting for a second before starting again behind my back. Some rumors were probably exaggerated, some were probably completely false, and there were undoubtedly a few that were surprisingly close to the truth.

I had stopped caring. I’d already spent enough time worrying about what strangers thought of me, and with exams only two weeks away and my credit points reduced to absolutely nothing, I had far more important problems.

I threw myself into studying with a determination that even surprised me. Thankfully, the upcoming examinations seemed to have distracted everyone else too. For once, people appeared too busy preparing for their own futures to spend every waking moment trying to interfere with mine. At least, that was what I believed.

Reign was apparently busy dealing with something at home as well. According to Violet, he had been skipping most of his classes and regularly leaving the academy grounds, which made me roll my eyes when she told me about it.

Apparently, academy rules had a remarkable ability to become flexible when the person breaking them happened to be the heir of one of the most powerful Regent families.

I wasn’t surprised. If I had tried disappearing from campus half as often as he apparently did, Lorien probably would have personally chained me to my dormitory.

Alaric, on the other hand, had long since stopped creating trouble for me, which I appreciated more than I would ever admit aloud.

Liliana and her little group still occasionally threw insults or sharp comments my way whenever they crossed paths with me, but nothing had escalated into another magical disaster.

I had no idea whether everyone was finally getting tired of me or whether they were simply waiting for another opportunity, but either way, I wasn’t going to waste energy worrying about it.

Tonight, after finishing my final assignment in the study hall, I gathered my books and stretched my stiff shoulders before deciding to return to my dorm.

I had spent hours sitting over notes and textbooks, and the thought of crawling beneath my blankets with a warm drink while revising the remaining Chapters sounded infinitely better than spending another minute under the harsh lights of the study hall.

I was halfway down the corridor when I passed the library, and my feet suddenly stopped moving. I stared at the closed doors for several seconds, irritated with myself because I already knew exactly why I had stopped.

I’d been avoiding the library for weeks because of a certain person, even though I didn’t even know whether he still came here regularly. It was ridiculous, really. Kairo hadn’t done anything to deserve being avoided, and yet I’d been deliberately choosing the study hall instead because somehow the possibility of running into him had become enough to make me uncomfortable.

I should have kept walking. I knew that. Instead, after standing there for several seconds arguing silently with myself, I pushed the library doors open.

The familiar scent of old books immediately surrounded me, and something about the quiet atmosphere made my heartbeat shift strangely. I walked farther inside, barely noticing the front desk assistant had already retired for the night as my feet carried me toward the staircase.

I climbed to the second floor almost without thinking, following a path my memory knew far better than I wanted to admit, until I reached the corner where I had once spent several hours learning magic with Kairo Greymark.

I stopped when my gaze landed on the person fast asleep on the couch that wasn’t there before.