Mary Ann’s POV
“You were never chosen to save Ironclaw. You were chosen to destroy it from within.”
Cassius’s words echoed through the chamber.
For several seconds, I heard nothing else.
Not the distant grinding of stone.
Not Modric striking the sealed wall on the other side.
Not even my own breathing.
The prophecy had been false.
My marriage had been arranged because Cassius paid a corrupt seer to place a lie inside old Volkov records. Viktor believed he was saving his bloodline. My father believed he was preserving peace. The council believed my body was the answer to Ironclaw’s future.
And Cassius had expected the marriage to destroy me.
I looked at him.
“How?”
He smiled faintly, as though I had finally asked the correct question.
“You already know.”
“No. I know pieces.”
