Chapter 70: The Lost Kingdom
The sun didn’t rise that morning.
It struggled through a fractured sky, blood and gold tangled together like veins torn open across the heavens. The air tasted of iron and something older—something buried deep beneath the earth for centuries.
We followed the Queen’s pulse through the Vale for hours. Every step felt heavier, every breath slower, as if the land itself resisted us. The closer we came to the mountains, the colder it grew—not from weather, but from memory. The kind that makes your bones ache before your mind even understands why.
Kaelen walked ahead, his back straight, shoulders tense beneath his leather armor. The mark he’d left on me—a faint crescent of gold against my skin—burned hotter with every mile. A silent promise. A desperate protectio
