I did not linger.
The moment the door closed behind me, I kept walking—boots steady against stone, spine straight, breath measured.
Discipline carried me down the corridor even as something inside my chest collapsed inward, slow and silent, like a structure giving way beneath its own weight.
Only when I turned the corner did I stop.
Just for a moment.
The silence pressed in, thick and suffocating. No screams now. No magic humming beneath my skin. Only the echo of what I had done.
What monster have you become?
The thought surfaced unbidden, sharp as glass.
I flexed my fingers. They trembled.
I clenched them into fists until the shaking stopped.
This was not the time. Odessa was waiting. There were reports to deliver, consequences to anticipate, futures to secure.
Regret was a luxury for those who had not already crossed the line.
I stepped forward again.
“Griselda.”
The voice stopped me cold.
Isaac.
I turned slowly.
He stood at the far end of the corridor, armor half-unfastened, hair disheveled as if he had come running.
His eyes searched my face—not with accusation at first, but with something rawer. Concern. Unfiltered.
“People heard screaming,” he said. “Zaeran’s chambers were sealed. And the princesses—both of them—are gone.”
I said nothing.
His jaw tightened. “Where are they?”
I met his gaze, my expression flattening into something impersonal. “That is none of your concern.”
Concern hardened instantly into fury.
He crossed the distance between us in seconds and slammed me back against the wall.
Stone bit into my spine as his forearm pressed against my throat, not enough to crush—enough to threaten.
“Don’t lie to me,” he snarled. “You don’t get to do that. Not about them.”
I did not struggle.
I could have.
I chose not to.
“If you don’t tell me,” Isaac continued, voice shaking with barely restrained rage, “I will tear this palace apart. I will disobey orders. I will burn every bridge necessary to find the truth.”
His grip tightened.
“I swear it.”
Something in me gave way.
Not fear.
Exhaustion.
I lifted my hands slowly, signaling surrender. “Lower your arm,” I said quietly. “And I’ll tell you.”
He hesitated—then released me, stepping back as though afraid of what he might do next.
I straightened my armor.
Then I told him everything.
About Atarae. About Zaeran. About the memories taken and the lies left behind. About Odessa’s command—and my obedience.
Each word felt like another blade turned inward.
When I finished, Isaac stared at me as though he no longer recognized what stood before him.
He laughed once. Short. Hollow. Disbelieving.
“You erased them,” he said. “Both of them.”
I said nothing.
“You,” he went on, voice rising, “who trained them. Protected them. Who they trusted.”
The word monster hung between us without being spoken.
“I suppose,” I said evenly, “no one ever liked me enough for betrayal to hurt.”
The silence that followed was unbearable.
“I owed Odessa,” I continued, the words brittle now, sharp. “She saved me. Gave me purpose when I had none. I would be dead without her. Everything I am—I owe to her.”
Isaac scoffed. “That isn’t loyalty. That’s selfishness.”
My head snapped up. “You think I had a choice?”
“Yes,” he shouted. “You always had a choice. You could have saved them.”
Something inside me fractured.
“You don’t know anything,” I hissed. “You don’t see the full board. Odessa is doing this for the greater good—for their survival—for the future—”
“For yours,” he cut in.
The words struck harder than any blow.
“This isn’t about Odessa,” Isaac said, voice low but shaking. “This was your decision.”
I faltered..
For the first time since the spell left my hands, I looked away.
Isaac turned his back to me.
“I will protect them,” he said over his shoulder. “No matter the cost. I swore that oath long before tonight.”
Then he walked away.
I did not stop him.
When his footsteps faded, the corridor finally broke me.
My knees gave out, and I slid down the wall, breath hitching as something hot spilled down my cheeks.
I pressed a hand to my mouth, but the sound still escaped—small, fractured, unforgivable.
I thought of the woman I had been before Odessa.
And the creature I had become because of her.
Maybe I should have stayed dead.
The thought lingered as I wept alone in the silence, knowing with sick certainty—
No matter what came next,
There would be no absolution waiting for me.
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