Chapter 300. Kill the Traitor!

Elizabeth’s POV

“You fooled me. You are engaged to another man.”

His voice cracked on the last word, the sound of it splintering straight through my chest. I had heard Aerys shout, command, roar orders that shook the ground—but I had never heard him sound like this. Broken. Unsteady. Human.

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

“I did,” I whispered, my throat tight, my voice barely holding together. “But I didn’t want to. That’s the reason I ran away from home.”

The words felt inadequate the second they left my mouth. How could a few sentences ever explain fear, suffocation, manipulation, centuries of expectations pressing down on my shoulders until running was the only way I knew how to survive?

Before I could say anything more, General Yule s