Chapter 18
1123 Words
“Freya?”
Xavier knocked again.
I couldn’t answer.
I stood frozen in front of the mirror, staring at my reflection. The woman was gone, but I could still feel her presence, as though she had left something behind inside my mind.
Do not trust the oath, child.
My gaze dropped to my wrist.
The silver symbol had returned to its usual faint glow. Beneath it, however, the black crescent remained, its blade shaped like a tiny crack in my skin.
I had never seen anything like it.
And I had no idea how to make it disappear.
“Freya, open the door.”
This time, Xavier sounded less patient.
I hurried across the room and unlocked it.
He stood in the corridor wearing black trousers and a dark shirt, his hair slightly disheveled. He looked as though he had dressed in a hurry, and his golden eyes immediately searched my face.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
His expression hardened.
“Try again.”
I stepped aside to let him enter.
“Something happened in the mirror.”
He stopped.
“What do you mean?”
I pointed toward it.
“There was a woman standing behind me. I could see her in the reflection, but when I turned around, nobody was there.”
Xavier glanced at the mirror, then back at me.
“What did she look like?”
“I couldn’t see her face clearly. She had silver hair, and she was wearing something that looked like an ancient dress.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Did she speak to you?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
I looked down at my wrist.
“She told me not to trust the oath.”
For the first time since I had met him, Xavier looked genuinely afraid.
It lasted only a second, but I saw it.
“What oath?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Xavier.”
His gaze dropped to my wrist.
Then he caught sight of the black mark.
Every trace of color seemed to leave his face.
“Where did that come from?”
“I woke up with it.”
He reached for my wrist, then stopped just before touching me.
“May I?”
I nodded.
His fingers closed gently around my hand.
The moment his skin met mine, the black crescent flashed.
A sharp pulse of golden light traveled beneath Xavier’s wrist, and he abruptly released me.
He staggered backward.
“Xavier?”
He didn’t seem to hear me.
His eyes had lost focus, fixed on something I couldn’t see.
His breathing became uneven.
Then he whispered a name.
“Alaric.”
I stared at him.
“Who is Alaric?”
Xavier gripped the edge of my dresser.
For several seconds, he said nothing. Then he closed his eyes, as though trying to force a memory back into the darkness from which it had emerged.
“My father.”
I had never heard him speak about his family.
Not once.
“What happened?”
He opened his eyes, but his expression had changed. The cold, composed king had disappeared, replaced by a man struggling to understand something that had frightened him long before I entered his life.
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“A conversation. I was a child. I couldn’t have been older than eight.”
He turned toward the window.
“My father took me to the northern sanctuary. I remember the stone doors, the torches, and the sound of his footsteps echoing through the corridor.”
His voice grew quieter.
“He told me that one day I would inherit the throne. That I would inherit our laws, our enemies, and the promises made by every king before me.”
I moved closer.
“And?”
Xavier looked at my wrist again.
“He told me there was one promise I must never question.”
My stomach tightened.
“The oath.”
He nodded.
“I asked him what would happen if I broke it.”
“What did he say?”
Xavier’s jaw tightened.
“He said the kingdom would survive almost anything. A war. A rebellion. Even the death of its king.”
He paused.
“But if the silver heir ever reached the sanctuary, I was never to let her pass through its inner doors.”
The room seemed to grow colder.
“The silver heir,” I whispered.
“You.”
I shook my head.
“How could he have known about me? I wasn’t even born.”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he know the First Luna had descendants?”
“He must have known something.”
I pulled my wrist from his hand.
Not because I thought he would hurt me, but because I needed space to think.
“So your father knew about someone like me, and he made you promise to stop her from entering the sanctuary?”
“He made me promise never to allow the silver heir to cross the inner threshold.”
“That sounds suspiciously specific.”
“It was.”
I stared at him.
“Did you promise?”
Xavier’s expression became unreadable.
“I was eight years old, Freya. I didn’t understand what he was asking me to swear.”
“But you did swear.”
“Yes.”
The single word settled between us like a stone.
I looked away.
For the first time since arriving in Blackthorn territory, I wondered whether the safety I had found there was only an illusion.
Xavier had rescued me from the forest. He had protected me from Dorian. He had given me shelter when I had nowhere else to go.
But an oath made in childhood could still become a cage.
And perhaps his father had known exactly what he was doing.
“Do you intend to keep that promise?” I asked.
Xavier moved toward me.
“No.”
I looked up sharply.
He held my gaze.
“Whatever my father knew, I will not condemn you for something you haven’t done. And I will not let an oath whose purpose I don’t understand decide what happens to you.”
“Even if breaking it puts your kingdom in danger?”
His expression hardened.
“If your existence threatens my kingdom, I will find out why. I won’t solve a mystery by sacrificing the person at its center.”
I wanted to believe him.
More than that, I wanted to understand why his words made me feel less alone.
But the black mark on my wrist remained cold against my skin.
And somewhere deep inside me, a voice whispered that the truth would not be so simple.
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