Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother

Chapter 24

Elara’s POV

“She will report to the palace on Monday morning,” Kaelen stated, his voice flat. “She will serve as a senior assistant. Alongside Elara.”

The words landed like a blade between my ribs.

I stared at Kaelen. Then at Seraphine. Then back at Kaelen.

He couldn’t be serious.

But his face was carved from stone. No warmth. No flicker of recognition that he’d just handed my worst nightmare a position beside mine.

Seraphine’s arms were still half-draped around me. I could feel the heat of her body pressing too close, the chemical sweetness of her perfume invading my lungs. My skin crawled where she touched me.

Get her off us, Moonlight snarled inside my skull. NOW.

I stepped back. One precise, deliberate step. Seraphine’s hands fell away.

“Elara, darling,” she cooed, tilting her head with that same poisonous smile I remembered from years ago. “You look exhausted. Are they working you too hard? Poor thing.”

Poor thing.

The words hit a nerve so deep I nearly flinched.

She used to say that. Back at the academy. Back when she and Isolde would corner me in the corridors after the instructors had gone. Poor thing. Poor little nobody.

I was in my second year when it started.

Seraphine had transferred in from another province, dripping in expensive fabrics and her father’s name. She found Isolde within the first week. Two vipers recognizing each other across a crowded room.

And I became their favorite target.

It started small. Ink spilled across my assignments. My belongings disappearing from my dormitory. Whispered laughter every time I walked into a room.

Then it got worse.

Seraphine held my head under the fountain in the academy courtyard while Isolde kept watch. The water was freezing. It flooded my nose and mouth. I thrashed and clawed at her wrists, but she was stronger—always stronger—and she held me there until my vision went black at the edges. When she finally let go, she laughed. Actually laughed. Wiped her wet hands on her skirt and said, “You needed a bath anyway, darling.”

The lunch trays came next. Seraphine would wait until I sat down in the dining hall, walk past with her own tray, and flip it directly onto my head. Soup, bread, gravy—whatever the kitchen had served that day, I wore it. The other students watched. Some laughed. Most looked away.

No one ever helped.

The psychological games were worse than the physical ones. Seraphine would befriend me for days at a time. Sit beside me in lectures. Braid my hair. Tell me I was pretty.

Then she’d turn.

She once convinced me she’d arranged a study circle with several older students—people I desperately wanted to impress. I showed up at the designated chamber, nervous and hopeful and carrying extra notes I’d prepared.

The room was empty. Except for a note pinned to the door.

Did you really think anyone wanted you here?

Three years. Three years of that.

And now she was standing in the royal palace, her inflated lips curved into that same sweet, toxic smile, calling me darling.

I want to rip her throat out, Moonlight growled, pacing furiously behind my eyes.

I forced my breathing steady.

“Seraphine.” My voice came out flat. Controlled. “It’s been a long time.”

“Too long!” She clasped her hands together. “I’ve missed you terribly. You just vanished after the academy. I was heartbroken.”

Heartbroken. Right. The way a cat is heartbroken when the mouse escapes.

I turned to Kaelen.

His expression hadn’t changed. That same blank, imperial mask. Arms folded. Gold eyes revealing nothing.

This was the man who had pulled me from Michael’s grip. Who had pressed his forehead to mine in the dark and whispered that I was his. Who had spent the past week tangled in conversation and tension and something I’d been foolish enough to mistake for intimacy.

And now he stood there like I was a stranger.

“Your Majesty.” I kept my voice professional. Barely. “May I ask whether Lady Seraphine underwent the standard evaluation process for senior palace appointments? The multiple rounds of screening and the rigorous assessments?”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. He said nothing.

Seraphine answered for him.

“Oh, Elara.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Evaluations? That’s so adorable. Kaelen personally offered me the position.”

She moved as she spoke. Drifted toward him like smoke. Her manicured fingers found his arm. Her body pressed against his side—those artificial curves molding themselves to him with practiced ease.

Kaelen did not pull away.

He pulled away from her earlier, some desperate part of my mind whispered. You saw it. In the corridor. He moved his arm.

But he wasn’t moving now. He stood perfectly still. Perfectly silent. Allowing her to hang on him like an ornament.

Moonlight howled. The sound tore through my skull, raw and anguished.

Seraphine reached into her bodice and produced a small object. She held it up between two fingers, turning it so the light caught the metal.

A gold badge.

Delicately crafted. Finely engraved. Unmistakably imperial.

“He gave me this,” she said, her voice ringing through the hall. “The night of the masquerade. Do you know what that means, Elara?” She leaned into Kaelen’s shoulder, gazing up at him with theatrical adoration. “It means I’m his first love. His true mate.” She pressed her lips together in a mock-sympathetic pout. “His future empress.”

The words echoed off the marble walls.

First love. True mate. Future empress.

I looked at Kaelen.

He looked back at me.

And said nothing.

Not a single word. Not a denial. Not a correction. Not even a frown.

Just... silence.

The kind of silence that says everything.

He’s not denying it, Moonlight whimpered. The fury had drained from her voice. What remained was something worse. Something small and wounded. Why isn’t he denying it?

I didn’t know. And the not-knowing was the cruelest part.

Because I could have fought a lie. I could have fought Seraphine’s theatrics, her desperate clutching, her painted-on confidence. I’d survived her cruelty before. I could survive it again.

But I couldn’t fight his silence.

Something cracked inside my chest. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just a quiet fracture, like thin ice giving way beneath a single step.

I straightened my spine. Lifted my chin.

“I’m sure you’ll make a lovely empress, Seraphine,” I said, smoothing the front of my wrinkled work dress. “And I’m sure His Majesty chose wisely.”

I looked directly into Kaelen’s gold eyes. They stared back at me, unreadable and unmoving.

“Congratulations to you both on your relationship,” I said, my voice eerily calm and steady.

Without waiting for a response, I announced, “I am going home now.”

Then I turned on my heel and walked toward the grand doors.