Chapter 238: The Declaration

Leone took a careful step backward.

Aveline didn’t move.

Distance meant very little to her. If Leone believed putting a few more feet between them would make her feel safe enough to speak, Aveline was perfectly willing to let her have that illusion.

"Is it one of your family’s men?" Aveline pressed. "Judging by the past, I’d say corruption runs rather deeply in your blood."

She knew Leone still believed that Leveret had been carrying Lucien’s child. Aveline deliberately twisted the knife, even though the truth was far more complicated. It had been Lucien’s brother who had destroyed Leveret, not Lucien himself.

But then, why else would Leone be here?

"Do not dare drag my family’s name through that filthy tongue of yours, witch!"

Aveline merely chuckled.

"Am I wrong?" Her gaze remained fixed on Leone. "Then tell me. Whom are you protecting this time?"

She tilted her head.

"A son of yours, perhaps? A grandson? How fortunate for him. You have always been remarkably willing to make women pay for the sins of men."

Leone’s face tightened.

"You even tried to extinguish an entire bloodline so that no child of hers would ever live to lay claim to the inheritance you intended for your own."

Aveline’s smile was faint.

"How very convenient."

Leone’s anger finally broke.

A pillar of yellow flame erupted from her hand and tore across the space between them. It roared upward, engulfing the dry leaves at Aveline’s feet and licking hungrily at the branches overhead. Smoke curled through the air as several leaves caught fire.

Aveline didn’t move.

The flames reflected in her eyes as she watched them approach.

She smiled.

She had touched a nerve.

Then she simply lifted her hand and blew toward the fire as casually as though she were extinguishing a candle.

The flames vanished. They didn’t scatter. They were simply...gone.

Leone stared at her in disbelief. But that didn’t reduce her anger.

"What gives you the right to speak to me in that fashion?" she hissed. "The Crown Prince has shown you a little attention, and suddenly you believe yourself untouchable?"

She laughed bitterly, though there was something strained beneath the sound.

"What do you actually possess, Ava? No parents. No house. No lineage of consequence. No inheritance worthy of the Crown."

Her eyes hardened.

"You are an orphan who ought to be grateful for the privilege of standing before royalty. And yet you presume to challenge me—as though you could one day stand beside the Crown Prince and call yourself the mother of this kingdom."

Aveline’s expression didn’t change.

But the air around them did.

The breeze fell completely still.

She looked at Leone for several seconds, almost as though she were trying to understand something.

Then her lips curved.

It wasn’t anger this time. It was amusement.

"So that’s what this is about."

Leone’s brow furrowed.

Aveline took one slow step toward her. "You’re afraid your granddaughter might miss her chance to become the future queen. But..."

She paused.

Something still didn’t add up.

She couldn’t see how Lydia’s case could possibly be connected to that.

Was Leone simply afraid that if Aveline fought for Lydia and succeeded in having those noble boys punished, her standing among the people would rise? Perhaps she feared the Crown Prince would become even more attached to her, making it harder for her own granddaughter to compete.

Or was there something else?

"You came all this way to serve as a messenger for those four scums?" Aveline asked, almost incredulously. "Those wastes of life?"

Her expression hardened.

"And you lowered yourself to plead on their behalf—for your granddaughter?"

Aveline gave a small, humorless laugh.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

She stepped closer.

"And who, exactly, do you think I am? You speak of my being an orphan as though it were some failing of mine. As though I chose it."

Her eyes darkened.

"I did not choose to be an orphan, Leone."

Her voice dropped.

"Who made me one?"

The shadows at Aveline’s feet stirred.

Then they rose.

Long, translucent ribbons of darkness unfurled behind her, lifting into the air and fluttering upward as though caught in an invisible wind. Her blonde hair darkened strand by strand, and the blue of her eyes deepened until they were almost black.

"The royal family!"

Aveline’s voice rang through the row of trees.

"You speak of them as though they were descended from the Creator Himself. Are they not human, just as I am?"

The shadows writhed behind her.

"And the King..." A cold, contemptuous smile touched her lips. "You speak of him as though he were worthy of the dust upon the hem of my skirt. Do you truly believe I fear him?"

Her voice echoed through the hall.

"You, Leone..." Aveline’s gaze settled upon her. "A woman whose heart is steeped in bitterness and murderous intent—you are the unworthy one. Not me."

Her eyes darkened further.

"And that granddaughter of yours?"

Her lips curled.

"She is not fit to stand beside even the shadow of my Theron."

The dark ribbons twisted through the air.

"Even his shadow belongs to me."

A pause.

"And I belong to him."

Leone instinctively retreated.

"Leave."

Aveline’s voice was suddenly quiet.

"Go. Hide beneath whatever stone you can find, like the vile cretin you are, lest you remain here long enough to discover the full measure of my fury."

Her gaze hardened.

"You believed House Caelvaris worthy of continuing its bloodline? That I’d fear that worthless title you’re clinging to in your blood-soaked hands of yours?"

Aveline smiled without warmth.

"Then remember this: the only reason a single soul bearing that blood still draws breath is because Lucien showed me mercy."

The shadows surged behind her.

"Not because I feared you."

Her eyes remained fixed upon Leone.

"Now, leave."

Leone shook violently.

She tried to move.

She couldn’t.

Whether it was the terrifying display of power surrounding Aveline, the strange ribbons of darkness fluttering behind her, the transformation of her eyes and hair, or something else entirely, Leone couldn’t tell.

Perhaps Aveline was holding her shadow. Perhaps she wasn’t. It hardly mattered.

Leone was terrified.

"I didn’t kill your parents," she whispered.

Aveline’s expression didn’t change.

"Please... I beg you. Let me go."

Leone’s voice broke.

"I was angry with Lucien for continuing to search for her after he promised me he wouldn’t. I... I did want her and her son dead."

Aveline’s breath caught.

"But it wasn’t me," Leone pleaded. "The men I sent returned and told me your parents were already dead. I ordered their deaths. But their blood is not on my hands. I swear it."

There was silence.

For several heartbeats, Aveline simply stared at her.

Then the shadows began to retreat.

The dark ribbons slowly descended and dissolved into the air. Her hair gradually returned to its golden hue, and the darkness receded from her eyes until their familiar blue returned.

Aveline’s eyes had begun to water, but she barely noticed.

What Leone had just said...