Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Chapter 47

Elara’s POV

White light. Then sound.

A low, mechanical hum filled my ears first. Steady. Constant. The kind of sound that lives inside walls—energy crystals pulsing through old palace stone.

I tried to open my eyes. Failed. My lids felt weighted, sealed shut with exhaustion so deep it lived inside my bones.

Try again.

I forced them open. Blinked against the brightness.

A private room in the medical wing. White stone ceiling. White curtains drawn across tall windows, thin enough to let afternoon light bleed through in pale gold sheets. The hum came from the healing crystals embedded in the walls, their faint blue glow cycling in rhythm.

I was lying in a narrow cot. Clean sheets. A wool blanket pulled to my chest. My body felt hollowed out—like someone had scooped everything vital from inside me and left only the shell.

Then I felt the warmth.

A hand around mine. Large. Calloused. Holding on with a careful, deliberate pressure, as though I might shatter if he squeezed too hard.

I turned my head.

Kaelen sat in a chair pulled flush against the cot. His posture was wrong—shoulders curved forward, spine bent, elbows braced on his knees. Everything about him usually screamed authority. Control. Right now he looked like a man who’d been sitting in the same position for far too long and refused to move.

His court uniform was wrinkled. Deeply creased across the chest and sleeves, the dark fabric rumpled in a way I’d never seen on him before. His black hair fell across his forehead in disordered strands, as though he’d been running his hands through it for hours.

His gold eyes were fixed on our joined hands.

When he felt me stir, his head snapped up.

The relief that broke across his face was staggering. Raw. It cracked through his composure like a fissure through ice—sudden and total. His jaw tightened. His throat worked. For a moment he didn’t speak. He just looked at me with those dark gold eyes, and something in them burned so fiercely I had to look away.

“Ela.” His voice came out rough. Scraped. “You’re awake.” 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“How long?” My own voice was a rasp. Barely there.

“Several hours.” His thumb traced a slow circle against my knuckles. “Your vitals stabilized after the first few. But you wouldn’t wake up.”

Several hours. The silver meadow. The river. The Moon Goddess. It all crashed back over me like a wave, and I sucked in a breath that hurt my ribs.

Kaelen leaned closer. “Easy. Don’t try to sit up yet.”

“Cassian.” The name came out before anything else. “Is he—”

“Back on his feet. Insisted on resuming his post a short while ago. The healers had to physically block the door to make him rest even that long.” A ghost of a smile. Brief. Gone. “His leg is completely healed. Just a faint scar left.”

“And Ben Thompson?”

“Same. The chest wound closed entirely. The head healer examined him. They said—” He paused. Chose his words carefully. “They said they’ve never documented anything like it. In any medical text. In any era.”

I closed my eyes. The relief was enormous, a warm tide that loosened something knotted tight behind my sternum. They were alive. Both of them. Everyone I’d touched was alive and whole.

“Every knight you reached,” Kaelen continued quietly. “All of them. Fully recovered. Just faint scars left behind.”

I exhaled. Opened my eyes again and stared at the ceiling.

“Kaelen.”

“I’m here.”

“I saw something. While I was unconscious.” I swallowed. My throat was so dry. “It wasn’t a dream.”

He didn’t interrupt. Didn’t ask me to clarify. He just held my hand and waited, those gold eyes steady on my face.

“I was in a meadow,” I said. “Silver grass. A river made of starlight. The sky had no sun, just stars. And she was there.”

“Who?”

“The Moon Goddess.”

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