Finally, I asked the other question burning on my tongue.
"And Max?" I whispered. "What happened to him?"
Lucien’s jaw tightened.
"He vanished. One day, I woke up in the clearing, and he was gone. No sign. No trail. Just... shadows."
I closed my eyes. Let that sink in.
When I opened them again, Lucien’s gaze was steady.
"So," he said quietly, "storm knight. What do we do next?"
I stared at him.
At the man everyone feared. The man I’d started to maybe understand.
And I gave him the only answer that made sense in that moment:
"We get ready."
*****
The private fallout happened, as always, not in some grand ballroom or council chamber—but in the quieter, quieter corners of the castle where real things got said.
It was past dusk when I found him.
Alaric wasn’t in the royal chamber
