Chapter 16 – What the Dagger Showed Me
841 Words
Kaelen stood in the palace war room, staring at the southern border map.
Something was wrong.
The air felt too still. The council too silent. And for days now, he’d felt the burn of eyes on him—not Aurelia’s gaze, but colder. Calculating.
And tonight, even the stars above the palace seemed to blink slower, as if holding their breath.
Then the door opened.
And she walked in.
Aurelia.
Dressed in her riding cloak, her silver thread now doubled with a new charm—a moon-dagger, sheathed against her thigh.
Kaelen turned to her, tension in every line of his body.
“You were gone for two days.”
“I was in the crypts.”
He frowned. “Alone?”
“With Rael.”
Of course.
She walked closer, then stopped a few feet away from the large oak table between them.
“I found the Thorne Vault.”
He raised his brows. “That’s a myth.”
“It’s not. And neither is the truth they buried with it.”
She laid the book on the table with a thump.
The old moon-leather glinted in the torchlight.
Kaelen didn’t open it.
Instead, he met her eyes.
“What did you see?”
She held his gaze.
“I saw a battlefield. I saw two Alphas. I saw you. And him.”
Kaelen’s jaw clenched. “Him?”
“Malric of the Exiled Clans. They’re bringing him back. The council. The Seer.”
He stepped back. “That’s not possible. He was banished.”
“Now he’s their weapon. Against you. Against me.”
Kaelen’s silence said everything.
She could almost see the moment he realized he was being replaced.
“They’re preparing for a war,” she continued. “Not just against you—but against what I am. What we are.”
Kaelen finally opened the book, flipping through pages—each a scream in ink.
When he reached the blood-written message at the end, his hands trembled.
“This is your mother’s handwriting.”
“Yes.”
“They erased her from the records.”
“They erased all of them, Kaelen. Every woman who carried the moon-blood. Every Seer who saw too much.”
He looked at her again. And this time, his face wasn’t just tired—it was haunted.
“I should have seen it. The council... they’ve been planning this longer than I’ve ruled.”
“And now it’s happening,” she said softly. “Right under your nose.”
He closed the book and stepped around the table toward her.
“You saw me on that battlefield. What was I doing?”
Her voice caught. “You were standing between me and Malric. But the prophecy said…”
She didn’t finish.
Kaelen did.
“Only one lives.”
The words echoed.
They stared at each other, something fragile stretching between them—love, or fear, or fate.
“I won’t let it end that way,” Kaelen said.
“You might not have a choice.”
“I will make a choice,” he growled. “And it won’t be the crown.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Why?”
“Because if you say it, I’ll believe it. And if I believe it, I won’t be able to do what I have to.”
He frowned. “And what is that?”
She reached into her cloak and pulled out a piece of parchment—worn, creased, burned at the edges.
The Seer’s true prophecy.
“I have to finish this. Even if it means losing everything.”
His voice broke. “Even me?”
Aurelia’s throat tightened. “Especially you.”
They stood in silence.
The dagger between them.
The book between them.
And the promise of war like smoke in the air.
“I’m not ready to lose you,” he said.
“Then don’t fight me, Kaelen.”
He touched her cheek, just once.
Then pulled his hand away like it burned.
“Be careful,” he whispered. “The next time we meet—it might not be like this.”
And then he turned, walking into the shadows of the war room.
A king in love.
A king in danger.
A king no longer in control.
---
In the halls beyond, Varn watched him leave.
He waited until the door closed, then stepped into the war room.
He picked up the prophecy parchment left behind.
Read it.
Smiled.
And tucked it into his sleeve.
---
Far across the southern border, Malric trained in the snow, shirtless despite the cold, his blade slicing through air like it owed him blood.
A messenger approached.
“The King has seen the prophecy.”
Malric grinned.
“Good. That means he knows he’s already lost.”
---
And in her chamber, Aurelia knelt before the open moon-dagger and whispered a name to the stars.
Her mother's name.
And a vow.
> If I have to become flame to save this kingdom...
Then let the fire start with me.
- Writer
