Love's Unexpected Awakening Elowen's Choice novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Elowen, Come Here

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Cassian didn’t acknowledge Lucien. He lowered his eyes instead. From where he sat, he could see the sheen of sweat glistening across Elowen’s brow.

“Will you give me the sword?”

His voice was low, almost like a suggestion.

Elowen nodded faintly in reply. Whether it was from shock or the lingering adrenaline, her voice trembled despite herself. Cassian noticed. His brows drew slightly together.

He reached out and took the iron sword from her hands. What had felt heavy enough to make Elowen’s arms shake now lay effortlessly in his grip, as though it weighed nothing at all.

His eyes shifted toward Lucien.

Cassian had a face too beautiful to belong to a man made for war-but the battlefield had carved something darker into him. After hundreds, maybe thousands of brutal fights, he wore death like a second skin.

Standing there, tall and still, he looked down at Lucien with the cold precision of a reaper.

Lucien couldn’t meet his gaze. His entire body stiffened. “What was it you said just now?”

Cassian’s voice broke the silence, calm and deep like still water before a storm.

Lucien dropped to his knees without hesitation. Cassian, I was wrong, I know I was wrong! I swear I’ll never-never again-!”

He’d been present when physician after physician had examined his cousin. Every last one of them had said the same thing: Duke Cassian would never wake again. Not from wounds like those.

If not for that, how could he have dared tonight?

He’d feared this cousin since they were boys-feared the way Cassian was cold, calculating, and utterly ruthless. And yet here he was, caught red-handed trying to violate Cassian’s new wife.

“I asked,” Cassian said again, interrupting him coldly, “what exactly you said.”

He rotated the blade in his hand. The sharp point kissed the ground, letting out a high- pitched metallic chime.

Lucien flinched. Cold sweat gathered at the base of his neck.

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Chapter 10 Elowen, Come Here

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“I… I said…” He looked up, swallowing hard. “I said… if we sent the others away, we could… be together, right here, in front of you-”

“Not that line.”

Cassian cut him off again. His voice was calm, but it smothered everything else like fog over a lake. The rest of Lucien’s words died in his throat.

He paused, racking his memory, then swallowed again.

“I said… I said you’d never know,” Lucien stammered. “That every royal physician and healer in the kingdom had already said you’d never wale again. That you were… a broken man.”

Cassian nodded once. “That one.”

There was something like a smile in his voice. But it wasn’t a warm smile. It was the kind of smile that made your blood run cold. He took a step forward.

The tip of the sword scraped across the stone floor with a shriek, like something from the underworld clawing its way to the surface.

Lucien froze, heart pounding.

“Please-please, Cassian!” he cried, head bowed so low it hit the floor. “For my father’s sake! You said you’d take care of us-my father saved your life!”

At the mention of his uncle, Cassian’s eyes narrowed.

He stopped just a step in front of Lucien. Lucien lifted his head, face streaked with tears and snot. “So you forgive me, right? You believe me. really, truly regret what I did—”

“For your father’s sake,” Cassian said coldly, “I’ll let you live.”

His gaze sharpened. “But if there’s a next time… I’ll gladly send you down to him so he can discipline you himself.”

Relief flooded Lucien’s face. He scrambled to bow again, banging his forehead against the floor three more times. “Yes! Yes, you’re right-absolutely right! I’ll behave, I swear!”

Cassian grimaced. “Get out.”

Lucien didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled out on all fours like a dog. Outside the room, Mira nearly jumped out of her skin.

“Master Lucien? Didn’t you already leave? How did you-?”

But Lucien didn’t stop. He wiped the sweat from his face and bolted.

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Chapter 10 Elowen, Come Here

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Mira frowned, something clearly off. “Your Grace?” she called out, voice raised. “Are you all right in there?”

The title pierced the quiet air. Cassian visibly flinched. The sword nearly slipped from his hand.

Elowen turned to look at him, voice soft. “Shall let them in?”

Cassian didn’t answer. Instead, he echoed the word, as if testing how it sounded in his mouth.

“Your Grace?” His voice lifted slightly at the end, almost curious.

Elowen flushed. “It was His Majesty,” she said, cheeks warming. “He asked who I wished to marry. So I…”

“So you chose me?” Cassian asked.

Elowen nodded slowly. Then, remembering what she’d heard before-that he had someone else he cared for-she quickly added, “But it’s all right. I know it was a royal decree. We can divorce at any

time.”

“And after that?”

Cassian stood close, eyes lowered, the emotion in them unreadable. “You’ll go to His Highness?”

Elowen stiffened, caught off guard. Before she could deny it, Cassian let go of the sword in his hand. It clattered to the floor with a hollow thud.

Elowen’s eyes widened. She’d heard about that sword-how Cassian treated it like a lover. How he’d named it, cleaned it with a silk cloth after every battle, and maintained it like it was a part of himself.

And now he’d dropped it without hesitation.

“Elowen.”

His voice reached her again, hoarse and weary. She looked over.

“Come here,” he said.

Elowen stepped forward without resistance. His face was pale, lips slightly parted.

“You want me to-?”

Before she could finish, she felt a weight on her shoulder.

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