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I kept telling myself. Draven’s return changed everything. If Adrian stayed, he’d be a target. I couldn’t let him become another casualty.

“But our people, they hate hybrids,” I muttered, clinging to something, anything that still made sense.

She shook her head. “No. The council hates them. The people… they fear what they don’t understand. And only a handful truly hate them. That hatred is born of fear. Fear of power. Fear of losing control.”

I swallowed hard. “Even if he wanted to rule beside me, he wouldn’t be safe.”

“You’re not giving him enough credit, Iryen.” Her voice turned firm, with a touch of fire beneath the water. “He is a Triton . He is your equal.”

Her next words shattered my remaining composure.

“No one knows, but the king of Kyraea…he’s a hybrid too.”

I gaped. “What? That king? The one betrothed to you before Grandpa?”

A soft smile curled her lips. “Yes. The very one.”

I felt like the ocean had turned upside down. I didn’t know what to believe anymore, only that the truths I’d clung to were shredding, thread by thread. And underneath it all, a quiet, bitter thought whispered.

Maybe I never had control to begin with.

“Yes,” she said, her voice distant, barely tethered to the room.

“That was the reason I didn’t marry him.

” Her eyes turned glassy, swept away by a current of memory I couldn’t follow.

“Sometimes, I wonder if I made the wrong choice. But then I look at what the goddess gave me—your mother. And you.” She smiled softly, her hand finding my hair, smoothing it in slow, maternal strokes.

I shouldn’t have said it. I knew the moment it escaped my mouth.

“I’m sorry I got them killed.”

The words tasted like salt and blood. Thin. Weak. A pathetic apology for a debt I could never repay. A tear broke free and drifted upward in the water, a single thread of sorrow, visible proof of the ache I tried so hard to bury.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, my child.” Her voice wrapped around me like a warm tide, but no tide could pull me out of this.

“It was my fault,” I said, barely breathing.

“If I hadn’t pushed so hard to marry him , if I’d just waited like they wanted, waited for my mate, they would still be alive.

” My throat clenched tight. The ache in my chest cracked open, and I crumbled in her arms. No longer the Crown Princess of Aetheria, just a broken daughter drowning in grief she had buried for too long.

She held me. Not as a queen. Not as a figure of power or poise. Just my grandmother. One hand on my back, stroking slow circles like she used to when I was small and couldn’t sleep. I let the pain rise. I let it rip through me. Because pretending I was fine had stopped working a long time ago.

“You know that’s not true,” she whispered.

But I did. Part of me did, at least. And that made it worse.

Because knowing they die for me, for the choices I made, didn’t make it hurt less. It made it unbearable.

“And now he’s back,” I choked out, bitter and broken. “And my powers—they’re wild. I can’t control them. The goddess is punishing me.”

Her hand stopped mid-circle. Froze.

“What?”

I felt her posture change, still calm on the surface, but coiled with sudden tension underneath. Great Iryen, perfect way to break the news. Why don’t just spill that her daughter’s killer is back on Aetheria territory?

“He’s back?” she asked slowly. “And punishment? What are you talking about, Iryen? ”

I winced and pulled back, wiping my face with trembling fingers.

“Yes,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “He’s back.”

I straightened, though my spine felt like it might snap from the tension coiled inside it. I met her eyes and forced the next words past the tightness in my throat.

“And not just that,” I continued carefully, deliberately. “Elora and Ronan caught him meeting with Thalor.”

The silence between us stretched. Heavy. Suffocating.

Then, like a shadow slicing through calm water, I added the part that made my stomach twist. “They found proof… Thalor was involved in my parents’ murder.”

It hit her like a spear.

Her mouth parted, but no sound came. Her eyes widened—sharp, luminous—and then her expression shattered into something primal. Something venerable. I’d seen her angry before, but not like this. Not in this silence. This stillness came before the storm.

The temperature dropped.

I sensed the change in the water, subtle at first, then biting. Ice bloomed around us, thin, web-like tendrils crystallizing near our tails. Her pupils contracted, serpentine and lethal, and the current twisted around her like it could barely contain her wrath.

It scared me. Even though she was my grandmother, even though I loved her, she was terrifying when angry, and anger didn’t even cover it. She was the Queen of Aetheria—she could break the ocean if she willed it.

I reached out, gently placing a hand on her arm. My fingers brushed her skin—cold, tense, trembling with the urge to destroy something. Anything.

“Grandma,” I said, keeping my voice low, grounding. “I know how it feels. The betrayal. The fury. But I need you with me, not lost to it.”

Her power pulsed, thick and furious, but she heard me .

The cold receded. The icy strands dissolved into softer currents, the water warming again, but her gaze didn’t soften. If anything, it sharpened, glinting with restrained vengeance.

She was still furious. But she was with me.

And right now, that was enough.

“Tell me about the punishment.” Grandma said, her voice clipped with authority. “We’ll deal with them later.”

I swallowed the bitterness at the back of my throat, the taste of divine interference lingering like poison.

“Sienna delivered a warning. From the goddess herself.” The words scraped out of me like broken coral.

“If I defied her… there would be consequences. Not just the pain of separation. Something worse.”

I laughed, hollow and sharp. “And she kept her word. My punishment is me . My powers…I can’t control them.”

Grandma’s expression sharpened into something deadly calm. “What can you still control? Or are all your powers unrestrained?” Her tone was firm, strategic. Calculating. “This is serious, Iryen. If Thalor senses any weakness, he’ll be on you like a blood-starved shark.”

I didn’t need the warning. I’d already felt that blade at my back. Thalor would tear into me the second he caught a scent of vulnerability. And Draven, gods. The thought of him beside Thalor made my skin crawl. How could they have ever aligned? What kind of game were they playing?

“My healing abilities and hydrokinesis are still stable,” I said, jaw clenched. “But the rest, they’re spiraling. It’s like trying to cage a seaquake with a whisper.” It was a relief that I wasn’t completely powerless.

“Even with the crown?” She asked.

I hesitated, fingers brushing the bare place on my head. I felt the absence of the crown like a phantom limb .

“Especially with the crown. It amplifies my magic. Right now, it would just make things worse. I can’t risk wearing it, Grandma.”

Her brows knit. “I know, child, but it will raise questions.”

I knew that all too well. They had eyes all over the palace and my movements always observed, but I’m tired of everyone undermining me. Let them whisper. Let them wonder . I don’t care. I’ll give them something to be afraid of.

I’m not some naive girl anymore. No one will ever manipulate me again.

She touched my arm, grounding me with one firm squeeze. “You need rest. And I need to decide how to deal with Lord Thalor.”

“I already have a plan.” The words burst out like an exhale I’d held too long. “Let me do this, Grandma, please. If not as your granddaughter, then as the Crown Princess. The heir to the throne. This is my duty. ”

Something flickered in her eyes, not fear, but understanding. Pride, maybe. A queen recognizing another queen in the making.

“Very well,” she said, voice cool and resolute. “But you’ll keep me informed. Of everything. Every move they make. Every move you make. No exceptions.”

It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order. She wasn’t my grandmother at that moment. She was the ruling queen of Aetheria. I dipped my head, accepting her terms.

“Yes, my Queen.”

Before I leave, her voice stops me in my tracks.

“What I meant, child,” she said more gently now, “is that it isn’t impossible for a hybrid to rule beside you.”

I didn’t turn around. “I know.”

But what I didn’t say… what I couldn’t say… was that it was too late. He was back at Nyssaion. Far from me. Far from the danger I was.

Far safer that way. I can’t see a future for us .

“It’s over,” I whispered, more to myself than to her.

Her voice followed me like a haunting. “Is it? Or are you just telling yourself that because you’re afraid?”

“Is it or are you telling yourself that because you are afraid?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

Her words stay with me all the way back to my chambers, wrapping around my throat, threading into the spaces between each beat of my heart.

Even when I lay in bed, they wouldn’t leave me.

Not her fury.

Not my failure.

And not the truth I couldn’t bury any longer.

I want him to rule with me.

Goddess, help me, I need him.

He was mine.

The thought of a future with Adrian curled like a shadowed whisper in the corners of my mind, unbidden and persistent. I yearned for something I hadn’t dared touch in four years. Something softer than revenge, but infinitely more dangerous.

Hope.