ELLIOT WALKED INTO THE STONE FAMILY'S CASTLE. He was still welcome around there, so his appearance was not questioned. He passed Caspian while climbing the stairs, resisting the urge to punch him in the face.

"Where are you going?" Caspian yelled.

Elliot kept walking faster. He didn't look back to see if Caspian followed him. He knew he'd find Cyra in her bedchamber on the third floor, so he headed there first.

His lucky stars must have been with him. The former empress stood on her balcony, staring at the purple and pink sunset. Elliot shut the door behind him, and called for Cyra.

"I need to talk to you!"

Cyra turned, her platinum hair flowing wildly in the wind. Thanks to Leya, the terrible cold disappeared, but the usual start of the Lehuan winter season had begun. Cyra entered her bedchamber and closed the balcony's sliding door behind her.

"Elliot," she said in her usual calm voice, "What do you need?"

Cyra's grey eyes looked just like Caspian's. They matched Elliot's too. He wondered if this Princess Lena Daines had the same eye color too. What was she like? Evil and wild like Cyra, or the complete opposite?

"I need to know more about Homer Lemay," he said, "I need to know how he died."

The former empress's eyes widened. She took a step forward trying to intimidate him.

"How do you know him?"

"Everyone says Valencia killed him," Elliot said, "but I need to know if that's even the truth, and if it is, why. He was her best friend. Did he betray her? Did he try to kill her first?"

"Our past doesn't concern you," Cyra said, "Now run along and fix the problems my son has caused."

Elliot wanted to scream that he was done protecting Caspian and fighting for Caspian to get the throne. But he chose his words carefully.

"I know the empire was meant for Princess Lena Daines. That she was Homer's friend and that you were his lover. What I don't understand is Valencia's role in Homer's death."

Cyra's lips formed a crooked frown. And then a scowl. "Don't speak of my sister."

Ah. The former empress did have feelings after all.

Elliot preyed on them. "What happened to her? She must be dead, and you must have killed her."

"I protected her," Cyra spat out, "I doted on her, kept her safe, even mothered her. Lena and Homer fell in love. And I did too, but Homer always belonged to Lena. Caspian murdered my dear Lena because she was the heiress and he was greedy for the throne. Homer thought Valencia did it, so he found her in the middle of the night, but she killed him first to protect herself."

"How do you know this? How do you know it really was Caspian?"

Cyra let out a wry laugh. "Oh, Elliot, I was empress.
I had eyes everywhere."

Elliot's mind raced with ideas. That Valencia really was protecting herself the night she killed Homer. That perhaps Valencia had no idea about Homer and Lena's love. And that perhaps Homer went rogue in so many ways that Valencia just didn't know about.

• • •

VALENCIA WAS ONLY SLIGHTLY AWARE OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING. She knew Ronan put out a statement about the capital fire, and that another advisor dealt with the media. Ophelia began questioning Auden and Astoria once again. They were all sure the fire was of Caspian's doing, and they just needed confirmation.

Guards were out searching for the former prince, and his best friend, Elliot Knox. Valencia laughed bitterly to herself. Who would've thought her faux prisoner belonged to her enemy?

Valencia wondered why she didn't see Elliot for who he was. A spy. Elliot was her Homer. The man who would make her come undone, like what Homer did to Cyra.

I know what you can do to him, her devil sneered.

You can hurt him worse than he hurt you, the devil urged.

"No," Valencia spoke to her devil, although alone in her office. "I can't. Not again."

A slow torture, the devil suggested, perhaps death by a thousand cuts.

Valencia's hands massaged her forehead. She knew deep within she could not survive another one of her devil's good deeds. Homer's death stained her hands crimson red, but Elliot's would surely break her into a million pieces.

She didn't know how he managed it. How he wormed his way into her life and made a home there. How he supported her and listened to her when he should have hated her. The thought made her nauseous. Elliot must have always despised her. It felt like a slap in the face as Valencia realized she cared for him. That she wanted to feel his kiss in real life too.

But that feeling was before she knew he betrayed her.

A knock on the door resounded in Valencia's office. The door opened and Ronan rushed in, breathless.

"Elliot's back," he said, "He's at the palace door. Caspian hasn't been found yet, but..."

Valencia didn't let him finish as she ran out the door.

• • •

ELLIOT STOOD NEAR THE ENTRANCE WITH A GUARD HOLDING HIS HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK. Valencia ran down the staircase towards him, entirely unsure of what to say to him, or what to do with him. His grey eyes were glassy. Yet his stance was strong. Unwavering.

"You have my loyalty," Elliot said.

Valencia watched him carefully. Her trust in him had disappeared overnight.

When the empress offered no response, he continued, "Caspian fucked us all over. Did you know he wasn't even the true heir, that Princess Lena Daines existed?"

Valencia winced at the name. She hoped he didn't see the pain in her eyes.

"What's Caspian's endgame?"

"To expose who you really are," Elliot said, "To expose that you're worse than Cyra. To make your citizens hate you. But that's not possible, Valencia. You are what Lehua needs. You want to change the empire and I know that. Your past doesn't matter now. Don't let it eat you alive. You are who you are because of it, and I just want you to know, I believe in you. I don't care what you do to me. Just tell me you'll move on past the way the Stone family and I hurt you. Promise me you'll create a better Lehua."

"Let him go."

The words tumbled out of Valencia's mouth before she could even think. This was her enemy, and she was giving him an out. He could've ran out the doors. But that wasn't Elliot's character. He ran towards her instead. His hand cupped her cheek.

Valencia should have slapped his hand away. But she leaned into his strong hold instead.

"I don't know who you are anymore," Valencia admitted. "Do you tell the truth?"

His thumb made small circles on her skin as he answered, "Of course I do. My loyalty to you began the day you told me the truth of your past. My only regret is not coming clean to you then. I must admit I never knew the full extent of Caspian's plan — the bomb and the fire because my only job was to spy. And even that I failed because Caspian knows nothing about of which you confided to me."

Valencia swallowed hard. He believed her. Few people did that.

"Where is he?" she tested him.

"I saw him at the Stone castle," Elliot explained, "I was there to talk to Cyra. She told me...her side of the story. By the time we finished, Caspian disappeared. I promise I looked."

Valencia nodded to her guards, and a few of them went off to alert those searching for the former crown prince.

"There's a lot you don't know about Homer," he added. "He was in love with Lena, not Cyra. He must have lied to you to hide it. Hide her. Everyone wanted to protect Lehua's heiress."

Valencia shuddered. She remembered brief meetings with Lena Daines, the heiress apparent. Lena listened to Valencia's speeches occasionally during the campaign. She remembered soft smiles between Lena and Homer; that Homer used their friendship as a way into the palace.

"Everyone wanted the throne," Elliot went on, "You, Caspian, and Lena. And Homer changed his loyalty from you to Lena when he found out you wanted the empire. But Caspian was wild too, because he killed Lena, his own family. Homer thought you did it. That's why he came to you that night — to avenge his lover."

The empress slipped downwards, sitting on the first step of the staircase. Everything she knew and thought about Homer was a lie. He was in love with someone who was actually a good person — Valencia admitted to herself that she liked Lena Daines too, that Lena was as liberal as Valencia. But liking the princess didn't change the fact that she worked hard for the crown and that the Lehuan legislature voted her empress.

Elliot was right — she couldn't change her past.

But she could damn well create a better Lehua, one that Lena Daines would be proud of. After all, they had a common enemy.