Celeste's POV
"NO!" I scream, fighting against the guards holding me. "Maris, tell them the truth! TELL THEM!"
My sister won't look at me. She keeps her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs. But through our bond—the connection only sisters share—I feel something that makes my blood turn cold.
She's not crying from sadness.
She's crying from relief.
"Maris, please!" My voice cracks. "I'm your sister! I protected you our whole lives! How can you—"
"Silence the traitor!" someone shouts from the crowd.
A guard slaps me across the face. The sting is nothing compared to the pain in my chest. Everything I thought I knew is crumbling. Aldric's betrayal was shocking, but Maris?
Maris was supposed to be different.
"Bring forth the evidence," King Aldric commands.
A servant rushes forward carrying a wooden box. My heart stops. That's my personal lockbox—from my private chambers. How did they get it?
The servant opens it. Inside are papers covered in my handwriting. Plans. Diagrams. Lists of names.
But I never wrote those things.
"As you can see," Prince Aldric announces, "Lady Celeste has been planning this for months. She studied my father's schedule. She listed which guards could be bribed. She even researched poisons."
"Those aren't mine!" I shout. "Someone forged them! Someone planted—"
"She's lying!" Maris suddenly screams, finally lifting her face. Her eyes are red and swollen, but there's something else in them. Something hard and angry that I've never seen before. "I watched her write those plans! She made me help her!"
The crowd roars with fury. More guards surround me, their swords drawn. I'm trapped in a circle of steel and hate.
"Why would I kill the king?" I demand, trying to make anyone listen to reason. "I'm engaged to the prince! I'm already going to be queen someday!"
"You're too impatient," Aldric says smoothly. "You want power now. You've always been ambitious, Celeste. Everyone knows it."
That's a lie. I never wanted power. I wanted to be free—free from the pressure, free from the expectations, free from this suffocating life. But I stayed because I thought I was doing the right thing. Because I thought Aldric and I would make the kingdom better together.
I was such a fool.
"Your own family agrees with the evidence," the king says coldly.
I look at my parents. My mother's face is white as snow. My father won't meet my eyes. They're standing together near the front of the crowd, frozen in shock.
"Mother? Father?" My voice is small now, childlike. "You know me. You know I wouldn't—"
My father clears his throat. When he speaks, his voice is formal and distant. "House Thorne... disowns Celeste Aurelia Thorne. She is no longer our daughter. We had no knowledge of her treasonous plans."
The words hit me like arrows. Each one piercing deeper than the last.
They're abandoning me. To save themselves. To save our family name.
I'm alone.
"The punishment for attempted regicide is death," High Priestess Serath says, stepping closer. The old woman's smile is cruel and satisfied. "But first, we strip away her magic. No traitor deserves the gift of storm-calling."
Terror floods through me. Magic stripping is the worst torture imaginable. It's not just losing power—it's having part of your soul ripped away while you're still alive.
"Please," I whisper, and I hate how broken I sound. "Please, don't do this."
"You should have thought of that before you betrayed us," Aldric says. Then he leans close, so only I can hear his next words. "Did you really think I'd let you expose those documents? Did you think I didn't know you found them?"
My blood turns to ice. "You... you knew?"
"Of course I knew." His smile is venomous. "I've been watching you for weeks, waiting for the perfect moment. And when you told me you needed to talk privately? Well, that confirmed everything." He straightens up, speaking louder now. "I gave you a chance, Celeste. You could have been my queen. But you chose treason instead."
"I chose the truth!" I spit at him. "Those papers prove the kingdom murdered the Lightning-Blessed! We're living a lie!"
Gasps ripple through the crowd, but not sympathetic ones. Angry ones.
"She's mad!" someone yells.
"The Lightning-Blessed deserved their fate!" another shouts.
High Priestess Serath's eyes flash with something dark and dangerous. "You speak of things you don't understand, child. The Lightning-Blessed were monsters. We did the world a favor."
"They were innocent!" My voice is raw, desperate. "They had families! Children! And we slaughtered them all to steal their—"
A guard hits me again, harder this time. I taste blood.
"Chain her to the Crystal Post," the king orders. "Begin the stripping ritual."
Guards drag me to the center of the hall where a tall, clear crystal pillar rises from the floor. They chain my wrists above my head, stretching my arms painfully. I'm completely exposed, vulnerable, displayed for everyone to see.
The twelve priestesses form a circle around me. They pull out knives that glow with sickly green light. Binding magic. Soul magic.
This is really happening.
"Any last words?" Serath asks mockingly.
I look at Maris one more time. She's standing beside Aldric now, her hand in his.
Oh gods.
The truth hits me like lightning. Aldric and Maris. They're together. This whole time, my fiancé and my sister have been...
"How long?" I ask quietly. "How long have you two been betraying me?"
Maris's face crumbles, but she doesn't answer.
Aldric just smiles.
Serath raises her knife. "Begin."
The blade cuts into my arm, carving glowing symbols into my skin. The pain is instant and overwhelming. But it's nothing compared to what comes next.
All twelve priestesses activate the spell at once.
And they start ripping my magic away.
The scream that tears from my throat doesn't sound human. It sounds like something dying. Something breaking. Because that's exactly what's happening—I'm breaking apart from the inside.
My storm magic fights back, lightning crackling wildly around me. Thunder booms inside the hall. But the priestesses are too strong. Too many.
They pull and pull and PULL.
My magic tears away from my soul like skin being peeled from flesh. I feel every single second of it. Every agonizing moment as the power I've had since birth is ripped from my veins.
Colors fade. Sounds become muffled. The world goes gray.
When it's finally over, I hang limply from the chains. Empty. Hollow. Less than human.
The priestesses step back, breathing hard. In Serath's hand is a glowing orb—my magic, captured and contained.
"It is done," she announces.
The crowd is silent now. Some look satisfied. Others look disturbed. A few are actually crying.
But no one helps me.
Aldric approaches, tilting my chin up with one finger. "I'll give you one final mercy," he says softly. "Marry me anyway. Be my servant-wife. Live in the palace as a powerless decoration. Or die in the Cinderfalls with the other discarded trash."
Through my haze of pain, I find one last spark of defiance.
I gather all the blood in my mouth.
And I spit directly in his face.
"I'd rather die," I rasp.
Aldric wipes his face slowly. His expression doesn't change, but his eyes go dead and cold.
"So be it." He turns to the guards. "Throw her into the Cinderfalls. Tonight."
As they unchain me and drag me away, I catch one last glimpse of Maris. She's watching me with an expression I can't read—guilt? Triumph? Regret?
Then the guards haul me through a side door, and my sister disappears from view.
Maybe forever.