Kaelen’s POV

The stronghold was still burning.

Smoke rose in thick black columns from what had once been the largest rogue outpost spanning three counties. Now it was rubble. Charred timber. Shattered stone. The skeletal remains of three buildings collapsed inward like broken ribs, and the weapons cache—a massive underground vault packed with enough silver-tipped blades and poisoned crossbow bolts to arm a small army—had detonated so violently it left a crater in the earth.

Victory.

I felt nothing.

"That’s the last of the munitions, Your Majesty!" Tyler called from across the wreckage, his face streaked with soot and sweat. He was grinning. "The whole communications hub—gone. Marcus confirmed it. They won’t be coordinating anything through this sector again."

Jack limped up beside him, favoring his left ankle. A shallow cut above his eyebrow had dried into a dark line. Despite the injuries, he was laughing. Actually laughing. He slapped Tyler on the back hard enough to raise a cloud of ash from his armor.

"Did you see the armory go up?" Jack’s voice cracked with adrenaline. "I thought the ground was going to swallow us whole."

Sir Marcus stood at the perimeter, directing a squad of knights through the systematic clearance of the eastern ruins. His expression was the only one that matched mine—controlled, measured, already calculating the next move. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Clean sweep," Marcus reported as he approached. "No survivors in the compound. We’ve secured documents from their command tent before the fire reached it. Could be useful for mapping their supply lines."

I nodded once.

Around me, knights cheered. They clasped forearms and checked each other’s wounds with the rough tenderness of soldiers who’d survived another day. They had earned this moment. I didn’t begrudge them that.

But I couldn’t share it.

I stared at the flames still licking the foundation walls and thought of only one thing. This outpost was a limb. A supply artery. Cutting it off would slow the rogues. Weaken them. But the body still lived. The rogue leader still breathed. Isolde still walked free somewhere in the wilderness, untouched and unpunished.

And Elara was still gone.

I turned away from the celebration and walked toward the northern ridge, where the smoke thinned and the wind carried the scent of pine instead of ash. My boots crunched over debris. Behind me, the sounds of victory faded into background noise.

"Kaelen."

Leily’s voice cut through the haze. Not "Your Majesty." Not the formal address she used in front of the others. Just my name, spoken low and sharp, like a blade drawn quietly from its sheath.

She’d commanded the northern wing of the assault. Her armor was dented at the shoulder, and dried blood—not hers—darkened her gauntlets. She fell into step beside me, matching my pace as I moved further from the main group.

I didn’t stop walking.

"Not here," I said.

"Then where?" She grabbed my arm. Her grip was iron. "Because I’ve been waiting. Patiently. For months. And I’m done waiting."

I stopped.

We stood on a ridge overlooking the smoldering compound. Below, knights moved like ants through the destruction. Up here, the wind was cold and tasted of char.

I met her eyes. They were hard. Searching. Furious.

"Where is she, Kaelen?"

The question landed like a fist to the sternum.

"Leily—"

"Don’t." She released my arm and stepped back. "Don’t give me the same story you’ve been feeding the court. ’The Empress is recovering.’ ’She’s resting at a private estate.’ I’m not one of your councilors. I’m not some noble who can be dismissed with a polished lie."

Her voice cracked on the last word. She pressed her lips together. Steadied herself.

"I haven’t seen Elara since the engagement party. Months ago. Maybe longer." Her eyes narrowed. "Or was it only days before she vanished? I can’t even tell anymore because nobody will give me a straight answer."

The wind howled between us.

"She’s my best friend," Leily said, her voice rising with anger and hurt. "Did she just disappear? Did she just run away and abandon Valerius? Leave Lyra behind?" Her jaw tightened. "Tell me she didn’t just walk out on her own family, Kaelen!"

I stared at her for a long moment. The smoke drifted between us in grey ribbons. Below, Jack’s laughter echoed faintly off the ruins.

I could lie. I was good at it now. Months of practice had sharpened the skill into something effortless.

But this was Leily. Elara’s closest friend. Cassian’s mate. A woman who would tear through stone walls with her bare hands if she believed someone she loved was in danger.

She deserved the truth. And I was so tired of carrying it alone.

"She didn’t abandon them," I snapped, fiercely defending my mate. My voice came out raw. Stripped. "She would never."

"Then what—"

"The rogues poisoned her." The words tasted like glass. "Massive doses of poisoned holy water. Not the kind that kills. The kind that severs. They cut her neural pathways. Destroyed the connection between her and her wolf spirit."

Leily went still.

"Moonlight is gone," I said. "Her wolf. The bond was severed completely. She’s..." I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t form the word that meant my mate, my Alpha-blooded mate, had been reduced to something fragile and mortal. "She lost everything. And she ran."

The silence that followed was absolute. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Leily’s face had gone white. Not angry anymore. Not hard. Just devastated. The kind of devastation that starts in the chest and radiates outward until it reaches the eyes.

"No," she whispered.

"I’ve had scouts searching since the day she left. Every contact. Every lead." I turned back toward the burning compound. "This—" I gestured at the destruction below, "—this is me dismantling every rogue operation I can find until I reach the ones who did this to her. Until I find the rogue leader. Until I find Isolde."

Leily pressed the heel of her hand against her mouth. Her shoulders shook once. She controlled it.

"Cassian," she said thickly. "Does he know?"

"No. And he can’t."

Her eyes flashed. "He’s my mate, Kaelen. You’re asking me to—"

"I’m asking you to protect Elara." I held her gaze. "If Cassian finds out, he’ll blow this open. You know he will. He’ll mobilize half the empire searching for her, and every rogue spy within our borders will know she’s vulnerable. They’ll hunt her. Finish what they started."

Leily’s hands trembled at her sides.

"If the court discovers the Empress has lost her wolf," I continued, "the political fallout alone will—"

"I don’t care about politics."

"Neither do I. But Elara does. She’d care about what it would mean for Valerius. For Lyra." I paused. "She ran because she didn’t want anyone to see her like this. Broken. Powerless. If we expose her before she’s ready..."

Leily closed her eyes. A tear escaped. She wiped it away viciously.

"The children," she said. "How are they?"

The question opened a wound I kept carefully bandaged during daylight hours.

"Valerius asks for her every day." My voice dropped to something barely audible. "Every single day. ’When is Mommy coming home?’ And I tell him soon. I promise him soon." I exhaled. "Lyra doesn’t understand yet. She’s too young. But she reaches for things that aren’t there. People who aren’t there."

Leily made a sound. Small. Broken. She turned away from me and pressed both hands over her face.

The smoke drifted around us. Below, Sir Marcus was shouting orders. The cleanup continued. The empire’s war machine ground forward without pause.

Up here, two people stood in the ashes of a victory that meant nothing.

"There’s something else," Leily said. Her voice was muffled behind her hands. She lowered them slowly. Her eyes were red. Wrecked. "I was going to tell you and Elara together. At dinner. I had it all planned."

I waited.

"I found out yesterday." She placed one hand flat against her stomach. The gesture was instinctive. Protective. "Eight weeks."

The realization hit me like a physical blow.

"I’m pregnant, Kaelen." Her voice broke completely. "And I was going to ask you and Elara to be godparents."

The silence stretched between us, vast and terrible.

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Something cracked behind my ribs.

"Bring her home." Leily’s tears fell freely now, cutting clean lines through the soot on her cheeks. "I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care what you have to burn down. Bring her home."

"I will," I said. My vision blurred, and a hot tear finally escaped, tracking down my own soot-stained face. We stood there in the thick smoke and ash of the destroyed rogue camp, looking at each other as our tears fell silently.