Chapter 205: He Chose Her

Elara:

For a moment, I couldn’t find anything to say. I had spent the past five months fighting against people who wanted to direct my choices that I had begun to expect control even from those who claimed they wanted to help me.

Lorien had every opportunity to lecture me, to remind me that I was inexperienced, or to insist that the Crown required obedience and careful guidance. Instead, he was telling me that he trusted me to think for myself. It should not have affected me as deeply as it did.

I had Jasper, who trusted my instincts even when he worried about my safety. Magnus, who believed I was worth working for because he trusted me as a person. And Esme, who had recently decided to pursue me despite knowing perfectly well that I wasn’t ready to promise him anything.

Yet there was something different about hearing those words from Lorien, perhaps because I knew how carefully he guarded the boundaries he had built around himself, or perhaps because I remembered the night he had kissed me and the way he had subsequently tried to convince us both that it meant nothing.

Before I could examine the dangerous direction of my thoughts, he continued, his voice growing quieter. "The second reason is far more important. If you had told me what you intended to do, I could have prepared for today’s meeting. I could have anticipated their questions, identified the arguments they might use against you, and made certain you weren’t walking into that room without knowing what awaited you."

His eyes softened, and when he spoke again, the words were barely above a whisper. "I can’t protect you from something when I don’t even know what I’m supposed to protect you from."

My heart stumbled. It was ridiculous, really, how a single sentence could slip beneath every defense I had carefully constructed and strike somewhere I had never learned how to protect.

I knew Lorien was powerful. I knew he could command a room without raising his voice and dismantle an argument without appearing to exert any effort. I knew he had spent years navigating the politics of Starfall, understanding its secrets and surviving its unspoken rules.

But none of those things explained why the thought of protecting me seemed to matter so much to him, especially when the people he wanted to protect me from belonged to the same political world he had inhabited his entire life.

I searched his face, trying to find an answer in the quiet intensity of his gaze, and finally asked the question that had been troubling me since the moment he pulled me into the shadows.

"Why?" My voice sounded smaller than I intended, so I forced myself to meet his eyes without looking away. "Why are you so determined to protect me, Lorien? Even from people who belong to your own side? The Regents trust you. They respect your position, and you have spent years working within their world. You could remain neutral, keep your distance, and avoid making yourself a target simply because you have decided to stand beside me. So why aren’t you doing that?"

Something changed in his expression. The amusement vanished, and for a fleeting moment, he looked almost as though I had asked him a question he had been answering privately for a long time. Then he stepped back. Once, and then again, creating a distance that felt strangely colder than the room itself.

He slipped both hands into his trouser pockets, his gaze never leaving mine, and shook his head. "You are mistaken about something, Starlight. I have never had a side. Not truly. I have served my responsibilities, upheld the rules I believed were necessary, and fulfilled the expectations attached to my name, but that doesn’t mean I have ever belonged to the Regents or considered their interests my own."

He paused, and the silence between us seemed to draw taut. "But I have finally chosen a side. And I have chosen a person."

My breath caught as he looked directly into my eyes, his expression stripped of its usual teasing composure.

"You. I have chosen you, Elara. I will protect you, support you, and stand beside you with everything I have, even when doing so becomes inconvenient, even when it costs me something, and even when the people standing against you are people I have known for years."

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even pretend I understood what was happening inside my chest, because every time I tried to arrange his words into something sensible, my heart seemed determined to make them mean more than I was prepared to accept.

Lorien watched me for a moment, then drew a slow breath, as though he had one last truth he needed me to hear before he lost the courage to say it.

"And I don’t want you to misunderstand me, Starlight. I’m not choosing to support the Crown. I’m not doing this because you are the last Argentis, because you’ll be crowned Crown Princess, or because standing beside you might be politically advantageous."

His voice lowered, becoming so honest that it almost hurt. "I’m choosing to support the woman who made me forget every rule I had spent my life following. The woman who made me forget regulations, boundaries, taboos, and consequences until I did something I had no right to do."

My pulse thundered in my ears as his gaze held mine, unwavering despite the vulnerability that had begun to show through his carefully maintained control.

"I’m choosing the woman who made me kiss her months ago, even though I knew exactly how dangerous it was, and the same woman I tried to walk away from afterward because I convinced myself that distance would make what I felt disappear." His jaw tightened, but he didn’t look away. "It didn’t. I tried, Elara. I tried to stop myself from falling for you, and I failed."

The confession settled between us, heavy and carrying too much weight.

Lorien took in a deep breath before adding, "So from now on, I’m on your side. And I hope you will trust me enough to keep me informed of such future plans."

Then he turned and walked out of the archive room, leaving me standing between the towering shelves and the fading light, too stunned to follow him, too overwhelmed to call his name.

The door closed softly behind him, yet the sound seemed to echo through every corner of my mind.

I had walked into Council Headquarters today prepared to challenge the Regents, defend my decisions, and prove that I would never allow anyone to turn me into a puppet. I had expected criticism, political warnings, perhaps another lecture about the responsibilities awaiting me.

What I had not expected was for the Headmaster of Moonveil Academy to look me in the eyes and tell me that, out of every side he could have chosen, he had chosen me. Not the Crown. Not the throne. Not the power that would soon become mine.

But me.