Chapter 100: _ Are You Fated To Them?

I let out an exhausted, airy laugh, kicking off my dusty boots and collapsing onto the edge of my bed. "No souls were sold, I promise. Sit down, both of you. I’ll tell you everything."

The two of them scrambled over, Miriel bouncing on her mattress while Bren leaned against the wooden bedpost, watching me intently.

"First of all," I began, taking a deep breath, "he took me outside the academy gates."

Miriel gasped so loudly she choked on her own air. "OUTSIDE?! Like... into the wild beast wasteland?!"

"It’s not a wasteland at all!" I corrected, my eyes lighting up as I remembered the rolling emerald hills and the crystal lake. "It’s breathtaking, Miriel. Rolling valleys, violet skies, mountain waterfalls... It’s gorgeous. But..." I swallowed, my tone sobering. "Ajax told me the truth about the beasts. The shifters and Fae stole the entire realm from the native wild creatures and drove them into the borders."

Miriel’s mouth hung open with green jealousy washing over her face. "You got to see the actual realm?! Oh, gods above, I am so jealous! I’ve been stuck in this dark granite prison for a week and you get a private royal tour!"

"What about the bracelet, glitch?" Bren interrupted dryly, bringing us strictly back to business. "Why did he put a dark-magic band on your arm?"

"It’s an emotional tether," I explained, holding up my wrist. "It links a tiny fraction of my emotional core to his heartstone. Whenever I feel overwhelming panic or terror, he feels a pulse. He put it on me because he wanted to keep tabs on my safety."

Bren’s brow furrowed into deep lines of skepticism. "And you believe him? A Crown Prince just casually decided to monitor your emotional well-being out of the goodness of his heart?"

"He’s being genuine, Bren," I insisted, leaning forward. "He pledged to be my ally. And honestly, I needed one. I didn’t get a chance to tell you guys earlier because of the Tobin situation, but... Master Eldritch tried to extort me today."

"HE WHAT?!" Miriel squeaked, clapping both hands over her mouth.

"He threatened to give me an academic zero on my practical test unless I gave him the exact location of my mother’s house in Stonewick," I confessed. "I refused, so I basically accepted a failing grade. But Ajax said he’s going to visit Eldritch tomorrow, restore my marks, and protect my mother."

Miriel clutched her chest, swooning dramatically against her pillow. "Oh, that is so romantic! He’s using royal muscle to fight off corrupted professors for you!"

"It isn’t romantic, Miriel, it’s dangerous," Bren said sternly, stepping away from the bedpost and pacing the floorboards. "Help in Last Bastion doesn’t come without a price tag. Royal princes don’t do favors for markless commoners out of charity."

Miriel paused and her dramatics deflated as she looked between Bren and me. For the very first time since we met, a serious look settled over Miriel’s amber eyes.

"Actually... Bren’s right. Elira... I’ve been trying to play along and tease you about it because I wanted you to feel good, and having powerful princes in your corner seemed like a great way to keep us from getting expelled. But now? It’s getting really weird."

I blinked, surprised by her sudden shift. "Miriel?"

"Think about it!" Miriel insisted, sitting up straight and pointing a finger at me. "Why would four out of the five sovereign princes in this entire academy be completely obsessed with one markless, dragonless commoner from the trenches?! Raice corners you in the dark! Ajax takes you to secret lakes and hands you magical artifacts! Remus broods over you in the Great Hall! Zev acts like your personal bodyguard! I mean, if Ivar wasn’t totally into me, who knows? Maybe he’d be circling you too!"

My stomach did a sickening flip.

I loathed it so much whenever she did that... say Ivar liked her. He didn’t.

My mouth opened to tell her right then and there—to scream that Prince Ivar wasn’t into her, that the Wolf Prince had literally kissed my forehead, and wiped my memories—but the words caught in my throat.

If I told Miriel that right now, it would crush her completely. We all had things that were anchoring us and keeping us sane in the face of all of this mess.

Maybe this was Miriel’s. The poor girl had been through a lot already.

Before I could process my guilt, Bren stopped pacing and turned her eyes directly onto me.

"That’s a fair question, glitch. What is really going on with you? How do you actually feel when you’re around them?"

I swallowed hard, pulling my knees tight against my chest under her razor-sharp gaze.

"I... I don’t know. It’s confusing. Whenever I’m near them... it feels like an invisible wire is wrapped around my ribs, pulling so tight it hurts. It’s like my soul is reacting to them before my brain even knows what’s happening."

Bren stood frozen in the dim orange firelight and I could see her eyes slowly widening as she processed my words.

"An invisible wire pulling at your ribs...Elira... is it possible... are you fated to all of them?"

"Fated... to all of them?"

A prickling sensation erupted at the base of my skull, cascading straight down my spine until my fingertips went numb.

"Bren, that’s... that’s insane. That’s fundamentally impossible. Fated bonds are rare enough for a commoner to be tethered to high-born royals... a-and it’s usually one bond, one mate. There is no such thing as being fated to four mates! Not to mention precisely princes of different factions. It doesn’t exist!"

"Does a markless commoner flaring an ancient heartstone exist?" Bren countered instantly, stepping closer to my bed. "Does a dragonless girl surviving a core stealer and breaking through Master Eldritch’s threats exist? Look at yourself, Elira!"

Miriel sat frozen on her mattress, her hairbrush slipping completely out of her limp fingers and clattering against the floorboards. Her eyes were wide as saucers, darting frantically between Bren and me.

"Fated to four... princes? As in... Prince Raice, Prince Ajax, Prince Remus, and Prince Zev?! Bren, that sounds like something out of a trashy, forbidden romance scroll written by a disgraced scholar!"

"Then explain it, Miriel!" Bren demanded, spinning slightly to gesture at me. "Explain why four royal heirs—from four rival realms who usually prefer to slit each other’s throats—are all circling her like starving wolves! Explain why Raice loses his mind and kisses her in the dark! Why Ajax dances with her, gives her a bracelet, and takes her out to see the realm! Why Remus broods over her wrist magic, and Zev acts like her personal shadow!"

Bren turned back to me, leaning down so her face was just inches from mine.

"And most importantly... explain the wire in her chest."

I couldn’t look Bren in the eye. I stared down at the coarse wool blanket under my legs. My mind was racing at a dizzying speed as every piece of the unexplainable madness from the past days slammed together in my head.

The wire.

It was always there. Whenever Raice was near, my soul screamed with a parasitic agony that forced his pain straight into my marrow. When Ivar kissed me and called me a petal, my blood surged with an overwhelming pulse that fought through his mind-compulsion. When Remus looked at me across the Great Hall, the magnetic warmth made me want to jump into his arms.... and Zev’s presence felt like a constant current pulling at my center.

I had tried to rationalize it. I had tried to tell myself it was trauma, royal intimidation, or standard high-born magic overpowering a commoner. Ajax had literally just tried to convince me it was silly girl infatuation!

But Ajax was wrong.

Or worse... Ajax was lying.