Chapter 72
Lila
The gardens were different at night.
They breathed slower. Softer. The scent of blooming jasmine drifted thick on the air, curling around the trimmed hedges like a secret. Moonlight spilled in silver pools across the stone pathways, catching on the edges of statues and fountain rims.
The usual murmur of nobles and court attendants had quieted into the hush of distant wind and the occasional rustle of leaves.
It should have been peaceful. It wasn’t.
I walked barefoot along one of the side paths, my shoes abandoned at the edge of the stairs near the solarium. I needed the cold stone under my feet. Something real. Something grounding.
The letter was still under my pillow, Emma’s still tucked in the spine of my journal. And every time I tried to close my eyes, I heard Ruby whispering do something–until I had no choice but to move.
I didn’t have a destination. I only meant to breathe. But as I neared the western hedge maze, I heard voices.
Low. Intent. Male.
I froze beneath an archway covered in moonflowers, the white blooms wide and ghostly in the dark. The voices were just far enough to blend into the rustle of the breeze. But one of them…
My stomach dropped. I recognized Asher’s deep tone.
I ducked into the shadow of a tall bush, careful to still my breath. The leaves were damp with dew and brushed cold against my shoulder.
The second voice belonged to someone I didn’t recognize. It was older. Measured. The two weren’t arguing like I first though, this was strategy. I couldn’t make out every word, but I caught enough.
“-still time to fracture the support. The northern votes are brittle. The rest will follow with the right push.”
“Damon’s too distracted to see the shift coming,” Asher replied, voice smooth. “His council is already split. The selection is perfect cover. No one’s looking at the map–they’re too busy watching the Crown.”
A pause. Then Asher added, “The trial placements bought us time. The rest will depend on how quickly she breaks–or rises.”
The other man said something I missed. But my heart was pounding now, hard and high in my throat.
Council votes. Pack assignments. Manipulated placements. Asher wasn’t just playing the selection. He was pulling strings beyond it.
And the ‘she‘ that he meant–I didn’t want to assume. But deep down, I knew.
I started to pull back. Carefully. One step. Then another.
And then my heel landed on a fallen branch.
Snap.
It was soft–barely more than a pop. But the voices stopped. I held my breath, frozen in place, the air suddenly too loud in my ears.
A long beat of silence. Then Asher’s voice, colder now. “Leaving so soon, Lucky?”
The garden twisted in my vision–silver and shadow and bloom–and then Asher stepped through it, alone.
1/3
Vanished like a ghost, or maybe like someone who knew better than to linger when he shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
ng conjured from the night itself, all dark lines and calm menace. The nobleman he’d been speaking to was already gorie
Asher’s silhouette cut clean against the moonlight, his coat unbuttoned, collar open just enough to make him look like he belonged to the dark.
“Didn’t take you for a night owl,” he said. His tone was light, but his eyes–those sharp, knowing eyes never left me.
I backed away a step but stopped myself from going further. I wouldn’t run. Not from him. Not from anyone. I wasn’t prey.
“You were listening,” he said. Not a question.
My hands curled at my sides. “I didn’t mean to.”
“But you did.” He stopped a few feet from me, close enough that I could see the way the moonlight caught on the curve of his jaw. “And I’m guessing you heard enough to be very, very stupid… or very, very brave.”
His voice was lower now. Softer. The kind of softness that carried weight.
I swallowed the dryness in my throat. “You’re manipulating the trials. The council.”
Asher tilted his head. “Big accusation.”
“You said it yourself.”
“I said nothing that would hold in a courtroom,” he replied, stepping closer. “But you… Lila… you’ve got secrets of your own, don’t you?”
My heart stuttered.
He smiled–but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ve done an admirable job playing Elena Ashford. But I’m not Damon. I pay attention to more than your mouth when it moves.”
His words weren’t cruel, not exactly. Just heavy with implication. The wind stirred behind him, catching the edge of his coat. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“How long have you known?” I asked.
Asher shrugged. “Long enough.”
He looked at me for a long moment. The moonlight made his eyes look pale–like ice held in firelight.
Then he said, “You’re not the only one lying in this palace, you know. But yours is among the more delicate. The easiest to crush our dear Sovereign.”
Something flickered across his expression. Regret. Frustration. “I don’t want to ruin you.”
My voice was barely a whisper. “Then why are you threatening me?”
“Because if you tell Damon what you heard–about the vote, the trial placements, any of it–he’ll act. He always does without thinking. And when he does, you will be the first one caught in the blast.”
He stepped closer again. Taking over my personal space. His voice dropped. “And I don’t want that.”
The air between us went still. His fingers reached out and barely brushed my wrist. Just the ghost of contact. A reminder.
“So beautiful,” he said, voice almost too low to catch. “You sure have complicated things.”
I frowned. “Complicated?”
Asher’s gaze sharpened, a little surprised that I heard him. “You have your part to play and I have mind.” He gave a short breath of something that wasn’t quite a laugh. “But…”
2/3
Chapter 72
But?
He stepped back half a pace, as if needing the distance. “But I see you. And I should’t.
I stared at him. The danger hadn’t left his voice–but something else had entered it. A softness he clearly hated.
“You think he’ll protect you?” Asher murmured. “He doesn’t even see you.”
“That’s not true,” I said, more to myself than him.
He let out a soft laugh. “I see you, Lucky. I see all of you. You don’t have to pretend with me.”
“And what would you have me do?” I asked, the words quieter than I meant them. “Be another pawn?”
His jaw tightened. “No. I don’t want you involved in any of this. I don’t want to hurt you, I just need to be the one holding this particular board.”
For a second, I forgot how to breathe. Then Ruby growled, low and fierce. Don’t trust him.
I straightened, forcing the fear out of my spine. “I won’t say anything. About whatever that was.”
Asher searched my face. “Good. Because if you do…” He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to, his meaning was clear as Vanessa’s had been.
With one last look, he turned away. But before he disappeared into the garden’s shadows, he glanced back over his shoulder.
“I meant what I said,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
And I believed that he didn’t. Not yet. Not unless he had to. But I also believed he would, if it meant keeping that control.
My breath came faster now, thinking about all the ways Asher might be able to hurt me… or Damon. I stood there too long, unmoving, remaining silent, until it became almost uncomfortable just staring at each other.
And then he was gone.
I stood beneath the archway, heart racing, lungs tight, trying to decide what scared me more: That he might be lying. Or that he wasn’t.
AD
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