Lara does not falter. She cocks her head to the side. “Nyrielle and Maireth have already offered me quite a compelling deal to servethemin this war. What do you have to offer, Lightborne?”
Ice pools in Elyssara’s veins.Lara’s been playing both fucking sides this entire time.But before she speaks, Seren shoves past Elyssara in a fit of rage.
Her teeth are bared, breath saws in and out of her in sharp pants.
“You would honestly prop up a world that casts witches out, makes us abandon and hide our children, subjugates the innocent?” she hisses, hurling the accusation at her like a dagger.
Lara looks down at Seren, callous and cruel, as if admonishing a disobedient child. “What am I loyal to Seren?”
Breaths rush in and out of Seren too fast, and she spits, “Coin and coven.”
Lara shrugs. “The Lightborne offers us nothing. The north offers coin, safety… guaranteed victory if the information I’ve heard tonight is correct.”
Insults and arguments swim through the air, but Elyssara can’t hear it. She’s swallowed by the fear that the High Witch will allow them to fall to their deaths without a chance.
Seren steps closer still, looking up from her petite stature to Lara’s tall, slender frame that looms over her.
“She offers you an opportunity to become more than what the world sees us as—evil beings to be feared. No sense of morality or loyalty,” she pleads, voice ragged and raw.
She pauses for a heartbeat, weighing her words carefully, pointedly. “She offers you a chance to make your mother proud of the daughter she could never raise.”
Silence spills across the rooms, endless, absolute. The whole group feels the gravity of this moment.
“Igive you an opportunity…” Seren breathes, her voice frail and broken, “to be the kind of mother I wish I had.”
The words don’t echo—they sink. Tears fall freely down Seren’s cheeks. Lara stills. Something falters behind her gaze of steel. She tries not to let it show, but the breath that snags in her throat belies her cool exterior. Silence swells. Time freezes.
Lara and Seren stare at each other for a long moment. A thousand words pass between their eyes, but never between their lips.
Lara moves to open her mouth, but thinks better of it. She breaks their stare, and her voice dips into a low, calculating register.
“I will assess my options.” But her voice isn’t as steady as before.
Seren flinches like she’s been struck. But her lips twist into a vicious snarl. “You are a coward, Lara.”
Lara shrugs indifferently. Completely unfazed. Or so she would like it to seem.
Elyssara wants to reach for Seren. To pull her into her chest and smooth her hair like she used to. But this woman before her… she is not the same Seren. She is powerful. Unyielding.
“You would leave us without The Barrierandthe dragons? You would really leave us with fractured allies, no guarantees, and minimal defenses?” Seren hisses between gritted teeth. But the fight leaves her face, and it softens into sadness. “Why?” she whispers.
Lara lets out a frustrated sigh. “I will accept the assignment from Ilyra. I did as I said I would—I listened. The odds are not in favor of this alliance. And now, I have decided. It is pragmatic, not personal.”
She says it like she’s discussing the weather. Like people won’t die from this choice.
Mavyrn’s words flood Elyssara’s mind:if you can get to Lara, the war is won.
And here Lara is… refusing to join this side of the war.Does that mean they’ve lost before they’ve even begun?
Dread pools low in her belly. Lara’s words fall on infuriated ears.
“Bullshit! That’s fuckingbullshit, Lara, and you know it,” Seren snaps. “Everything is emotional. Every choice a person makes is fundamentally driven by an emotion—a promise ofwhat you think you’ll get from it. So, what do you get, Lara? What is she promising you?”
The words slice through the group.
Because she has a point.
Lara rolls her eyes, and drawls, “Emotions are so tedious.” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “She has offered land in the Known Realms. Access to resources, protection behind her wards, and no prosecution from the people. We would live in relative peace and freedom.”
