Chapter 19: Three Rooms

Three Rooms

In the Queen’s bed, Elara slept as if the world had finally gone quiet.

Her breathing was slow and even. One hand rested loosely near her face. The faint violet night-light painted her skin in soft shadows. There was no tension left in her body—no flinch, no tremor. She looked almost peaceful, and that peace unsettled Lilith more than any scream ever had.

Lilith could not sleep.

She lay pressed against the girl’s back, arms locked tightly around her waist, one leg draped over Elara’s. Their bodies were so close that every breath Elara took brushed against Lilith’s chest. The Queen’s own breathing remained uneven, shallow, as if her lungs had forgotten how to work properly. She buried her face in the golden hair and inhaled.

The scent was clean. Warm. Faintly sweet.

Lilith’s eyes stayed open in the dark.

How can she sleep like this?

After everything. After the pens. After the blood. After spitting in my face.

How is she allowed this calm when I cannot even close my eyes?

Her arms tightened without permission. Elara made a small sound in her sleep but did not wake. Lilith pressed her face deeper into the hair, breathing her in again and again, as if the scent alone might answer the questions turning in her skull.

And then the words returned.

Maybe I want your sister instead.

The memory struck like a blade. Lilith’s entire body locked. She pulled Elara even closer, almost crushing, jaw clenched against the sudden heat of jealousy and something uglier.

She only said it to provoke me. That is all. She does not mean it. She cannot mean it.

She repeated the thought until it almost felt true. Outside, the rain had softened to a steady hush. Somewhere beneath the sound, the memory of falling ash still lingered like a bad taste she could not spit out.

Lilith closed her eyes at last, but sleep did not come easily.

—

Two corridors away, Commander Thalira knelt on the floor of her private chambers.

Lilith’s discarded undergarment was clenched in both hands. She had pressed it to her face so many times the fabric was damp with her own breath and tears. It was no longer enough. The scent only fed the spiral.

“She let that whore call me a dog,” Thalira whispered against the silk. “She sat there and allowed it. She ordered me to pick up the fork like a trained animal.”

Her free hand slammed against the stone floor. Then against her own thigh. Then, harder, against the side of her head. Once. Twice. A third time until white sparks flashed behind her eyes. She did not scream aloud—someone might hear—but the sound that tore from her throat was raw and animal, swallowed against the silk.

Tears ran freely down her face. Her silver braid had come half undone. She rocked forward, forehead pressed to the cold stone, the Queen’s undergarment still crushed in her fist.

I need to take this out on someone.

I need to hurt something that looks like her.

I need—

She stood so suddenly the chair behind her toppled. The undergarment fell forgotten. Grey eyes burned with a new, feverish purpose.

Nyx.

Same blood. Same face. Same scent beneath the skin.

Thalira left her rooms without bothering to fully dress.

—

Nyx sat on the edge of her bed in the dark, knees drawn up, still fully clothed. Sleep had not come. Every time she closed her eyes she felt the seals on her wrists again, felt the commander’s tongue, felt the unwanted climax tearing through her while she cried.

A soft scrape at the door.

Her head snapped up.

“…Sister?” The word was barely a breath. Hope and terror tangled in it.

No answer.

The lock rattled. Hard.

Nyx’s blood turned to ice. She scrambled off the bed and slammed both palms against the door, pouring every scrap of power she had into a second, thicker seal. The wood shuddered under the force on the other side but held.

The lights refused to answer her. Darkness remained absolute—Thalira’s magic smothering the crystals.

“Who is there?” Nyx’s voice cracked. She already knew.

The door strained again. Wood creaked.

Thalira’s voice slid through the gap, low and rough with want.

“I already took what I wanted once. A second time changes nothing. You already gave me your first. Lift the seal. I will only taste you. I will not force anything else. We can both feel good.”

Nyx staggered backward until her shoulders hit the far wall. She slid down to the floor, hands clamped over her ears, but the words still reached her.

I was saving it.

I was saving myself for the hero.

I wanted her to be the first.

Tears spilled hot and silent. Her body curled in on itself.

Outside, Thalira’s voice sharpened, almost coaxing.

“Your sister is taking the hero right now. Stop lying to yourself. Open the door. Neither of us gets what we truly want. At least we can use each other.”

Something inside Nyx snapped.

“GET OUT!”

The scream tore through the sealed room, raw and broken and far too loud.

“GET OUT—GET OUT—GET OUT—GET OUT—!”

She kept screaming the same word, voice rising until it cracked, until her throat felt bloody. Footsteps retreated fast in the corridor. Thalira had fled, terrified the noise would bring guards or worse—the Queen herself.

Silence crashed back.

Nyx remained on the floor, hands still over her ears, rocking.

“I’m dirty,” she whispered into the dark. “I’m dirty… I didn’t want this… I was going to take the clean one… it wasn’t supposed to be like this… it wasn’t supposed to be her…”

The words dissolved into helpless, muffled sobs that went on long after the corridor had emptied.

In the Queen’s bed, Lilith finally drifted into uneasy sleep with Elara still locked in her arms, golden hair against her lips, while two rooms away the night continued to break the people she claimed to own.