CHAPTER 6
421 Words
The Hidden Truth
Aurelia couldn't sleep.
The palace was quiet, but every distant sound made her turn toward the door.
The heir.
The word wouldn't leave her mind.
At dawn, she found Kael in the library.
He stood beside a tall window, reading an old leather-bound book.
“You knew,” Aurelia said.
Kael looked up.
“Knew what?”
“About Seraphine.”
“I knew the story.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
His silence was answer enough.
Aurelia walked toward him.
“You knew her bloodline might still exist.”
“I suspected.”
“And you didn't tell me.”
“You wouldn't have believed me.”
“You could have tried.”
Kael closed the book.
“There is something else.”
He opened it to an old drawing.
A woman stood beneath the Moonstone, wearing a silver crown.
Aurelia's breath caught.
The woman's face looked remarkably like hers.
“That can't be…”
“Her name was Seraphine.”
Aurelia stared at the page.
“She looks like me.”
Kael said nothing.
Before she could question him, the library doors slammed open.
The High Priestess rushed inside.
“The Moonstone has revealed another message.”
Kael's expression hardened.
“What message?”
She looked at Aurelia.
“The heir must return to the place where the queen fell.”
Aurelia looked at Kael.
“Where is that?”
“The ruins of Seraphine's kingdom.”
“Then that's where we're going.”
Kael shook his head.
“It's too dangerous.”
Aurelia folded her arms.
“I'm the heir they're looking for. If they're waiting for me, I'll meet them.”
She turned toward the door.
Kael watched her leave.
Only after she was gone did he return to the old book.
A loose page had fallen open.
Kael stared at it.
The page showed a ruined palace beneath a blood-red moon.
In the corner was a faded symbol.
The same silver crescent carved into Aurelia's pendant.
Kael quickly closed the book.
His hand remained on its cover.
He had seen that symbol before.
Not in a history book.
Not in a legend.
In the ruins themselves.
Three hundred years ago.
And whatever he had found there had been the reason his family ordered the entire kingdom erased from history.
Kael looked toward the door Aurelia had disappeared through.
He had just agreed to take her there.
And he wasn't sure whether the ruins were waiting for her—
or for him.
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