KAEL POV
Kael found her in the library an hour after midnight.
She didn't know how she knew Helena would be there. Some part of her just understood that her sister would need books and darkness and the smell of old paper to feel safe enough to think. The same part of Kael that had run to the library when Meridian burned and there was nothing else left to hold onto.
Helena was sitting in an alcove between shelves. The candlelight made her look like a ghost. Dark circles hung under her eyes like bruises. Her hands were shaking as she turned pages she wasn't reading.
When she saw Kael, she went completely still.
"I know," Kael said quietly. "I know what you did."
Helena's face crumbled. For a second she looked like she might scream. Then she stood up and pulled Kael into her arms. They held each other in the darkness between the shelves, and Kael could feel her sister shaking.
"I'm sorry," Helena whispered. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted this. I never thought it would go this far."
Kael pulled back just enough to look at her sister's face. Helena's eyes were red from crying. Her lips were pale. She looked like someone who'd been drowning and was only now coming up for air.
"Why?" Kael asked. "Why did you do it?"
Helena looked around to make sure no one was listening. Then she sat back down and pulled Kael onto the bench beside her.
"I was there the night before the invasion," Helena said. Her voice was barely a whisper. "I was in the palace. I don't know if you remember but I was meeting with the Regent about something. About trade agreements or politics or something that didn't matter. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Mirren arrived."
Kael's breath caught.
"He came to the palace?" she asked.
"Through secret passages that only the Regent knew about. He said he was there to negotiate. That he wanted to prevent the war instead of fight it. He said Valorian was too strong and Meridian would fall no matter what we did. That the only way to save our people was to work with him."
"And you believed him?"
Helena shook her head. "No. At first I didn't. But then he said something that changed everything. He said he had our brother."
The world tilted.
Their brother Silas had been lost the day the invasion came. No one had seen him since. Kael had assumed he was dead like thousands of others.
"What do you mean he had him?" Kael asked.
"Silas had been captured by Valorian soldiers weeks before the invasion. He was being held in a fortress in the mountains. Mirren had him. He showed me proof. A letter Silas had written. His seal ring. Mirren said if I helped him lower the shields, he'd release Silas. That Silas would be protected. That he'd be safe."
Tears were streaming down Helena's face now.
"I had to choose between saving you and saving Silas. Between protecting Meridian and protecting my brother. And I chose wrong. I gave him the codes. I let him into the palace. I thought maybe the invasion would fail anyway. That our magic would be strong enough. That somehow it would all be okay."
"But it wasn't okay," Kael said flatly.
"No," Helena whispered. "It wasn't. Everything burned. Our grandmother died. Thousands of people died. And the only reason any of us survived was because Mirren kept his word about Silas. He released him after the invasion. That's why I'm here. That's why I volunteered to work as a hand-maiden in this palace. I'm trying to protect what's left of our family."
Kael wanted to scream. Wanted to hurt her sister the way her sister had hurt everyone. Wanted to make Helena understand the weight of what she'd done.
But looking at Helena's face, at the years of guilt carved into every line, Kael understood something terrible.
Helena already knew.
She'd been living with this for two years. Living with the knowledge that she'd destroyed her own empire. Living with the guilt of millions of deaths on her hands. Living with the fact that she'd saved one brother but lost an entire nation to do it.
"Where is he?" Kael asked. "Where is Silas?"
"I don't know," Helena said. "After the invasion, Mirren moved him somewhere safe. Said Silas needed to be protected until things settled. I've been searching for two years and I can't find him. It's like Mirren hid him away and forgot about him."
The pieces clicked together in Kael's mind. The reason Helena had infiltrated the palace. The reason she'd been spying. She wasn't working for Mirren anymore. She was trying to find their brother.
"Helena," Kael said carefully. "When I was investigating, I found letters. Letters that mentioned Mirren having leverage over someone. Letters that suggested he was using information about the invasion to control someone in power."
"That's me," Helena said. "He's been using me to make sure I don't tell anyone the truth. He said if I spoke about the betrayal, he'd make sure Silas disappeared forever."
Footsteps echoed in the library.
Someone was coming.
Helena stood up immediately. She pressed a kiss to Kael's forehead, quick and desperate.
"I never wanted to hurt you," she said. "You have to understand that. I made an impossible choice and I've been paying for it every single day."
"Helena—"
"Find Silas," her sister whispered urgently. "Find him and get him away from Mirren. Promise me. Promise me you'll protect him the way I couldn't."
"I promise," Kael said.
Helena disappeared into the shadows between the shelves just as a servant turned the corner. The servant didn't even look at Kael. Probably didn't see her sitting there in the darkness.
Kael was alone again.
She sat in the library with her sister's confession burning in her mind. Her sister had betrayed Meridian. Her sister had made a deal with the devil. Her sister had destroyed everything to save one life.
And somewhere in this empire, their brother was alive.
Kael's hands started to glow silver. Her magic was burning now, desperate and angry and full of questions she didn't have answers to yet.
She understood now why Helena had said some truths cost more than they're worth. Because knowing that her sister had sacrificed an entire empire to save a brother was a truth that destroyed Kael's ability to hate her. That made forgiveness and rage exist in the same space inside her chest.
She heard voices in the hallway. Guards changing positions. A familiar voice speaking to the soldier.
Mirren.
The Chancellor was walking past the library talking about something that made him laugh. That horrible laugh that sounded like satisfaction.
Kael realized in that moment that Mirren knew. He'd known all along that Helena would eventually tell Kael the truth. He'd been counting on it. Because Helena's betrayal wasn't just a weapon against Meridian anymore.
It was a weapon against Kael.
A way to make sure she was divided. Torn between hating her sister and understanding why she'd done it. Torn between seeking revenge and seeking answers.
Torn between everything that would keep her from seeing the bigger picture.
The bigger picture that Mirren was hiding.
Because if Helena had saved Silas, if her brother was alive somewhere in this empire, then Kael had a leverage point. She had someone Darius cared about. Someone she could use.
Someone she could lose.
And Mirren had hidden him away knowing that someday, when Kael was strong enough, she'd try to find him.
And when she did, Mirren would be waiting.