Mira's. Pov.

Lyra entered at dawn with four guards flanking her. She circled us slowly, studying her chained parents like specimens pinned for examination. "Did you search every day?" Her voice was clinical. "Or just when guilt made you remember I existed?"

I tried to answer, but she talked over me. "And you." She turned to Kael. "Did you reject her to protect her, or because claiming her would cost you the throne?"

Kael didn't respond. He watched her with that unreadable Alpha expression, but ...