Page 28 of The Panther's Price

“I’m not a story,” she said. “I’m not a symbol.”

“But you could be,” Thalia countered. “Youshouldbe. You have power, Evryn—real power. And the Veil is waking because of it. Selyne is stirring her armies. If we don’t rally now—if we don’t strike with something they can believe in—we lose.”

Evryn’s breath came fast. “You want me as a banner.”

“I want you as a beginning.”

She looked at Lucien again.

His expression didn’t change, but his stance shifted slightly—closer to her. Guarded. Tense.

“Say something,” she muttered to him.

Lucien spoke quietly, but without hesitation. “Don’t trust her.”

Thalia’s lips thinned. “Still loyal to your mother, are you?”

“No,” Lucien said. “But I know how you operate, Thalia. You use people until they break. Then you dress the ruins in silk and call it revolution.”

Thalia looked at Evryn. “That’s rich, coming from the Queen’s favorite knife.”

“I haven’t killed her yet,” he said. “Which makes me unreliable. You, on the other hand…”

Evryn’s voice broke through before they could spiral.

“Stop.”

Both turned toward her.

She rubbed her temple. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“I know,” Thalia said gently.

“Do you?” Evryn snapped. “Because it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it. You didn’t tell me what I was. You let me walk into the Veil like I had any idea what the cost would be. You let themtakeEamon?—”

“I didn’t order that,” Thalia cut in, just a little too fast. “If they did, it was rogue action.”

Lucien scoffed.

Evryn clenched her fists. Her voice lowered. “You told me I had a choice. You made me believe I could trust you.”

“Youcan,” Thalia insisted.

Evryn stepped back. “Then why do I feel like you’re already planning how touseme?”

The silence after that was long. Heavy.

Finally, Thalia exhaled. “I will return with an offer. You deserve time. But don’t wait too long.”

And just like that, she was gone.

The air felt colder after she left.

Evryn sat again, slower this time, like her body was catching up to the weight of it all. The choice Thalia had dropped in her lap pressed into her bones—heavy, aching.

Lucien remained a few feet away. Still. Watching her with that unreadable face he wore like armor.

She looked up at him. “Were you serious?”

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