~KAIROS POV~
The castle archives were a maze of cold stone and history that smelled like rot. The air in here always felt a hundred years older than the world outside. Usually, I liked the quiet. It felt like a hug. Tonight, though, the silence felt like it was screaming at me.
I sat at a heavy oak desk. My only light came from a single candle that sputtered and kicked, throwing long, shaky shadows against the stone walls. I didn't look like a King who just got offered a huge alliance and a pretty wife. I looked like a man sitting in the wreckage of his own heart.
My hand, which stayed steady through a hundred wars, actually shook as I turned the page of a legal book.
The Council was pushing me.
It felt like a rope tightening around my neck. Silas and the Elders didn't even wait for t
