Kael's Doubt

CHAPTER 17

Sleep wasn't coming.

Kael had stopped pretending otherwise an hour ago.

He sat at his desk with a stack of border reports he hadn't read a word of, the candle burning low as the palace settled into the stillness before dawn.

Every time he closed his eyes, the same image returned.

Elara's face.

Not angry.

Not accusing.

Hurt.

"I did what I had to do," Kael said quietly.

The words sounded convincing when spoken aloud.

They didn't feel convincing anymore.

He pushed the reports aside and rose, pacing the length of his chambers.

He had made difficult decisions before.

Border disputes.

Executions.

Political alliances.

He had never lost sleep over any of them.

Tonight, he couldn't stop thinking about one girl.

He stopped beside the window.

"A king cannot allow uncertainty to threaten the kingdom."

That had been his reasoning.

The Moonstone had turned black.

The temple had spoken.

The court had witnessed something no one could explain.

Rejecting Elara had seemed like the only decision he could make.

But caution and cruelty were not the same thing.

And somewhere inside him, a question refused to disappear.

"Was it duty," he whispered, "or was I afraid?"

Silence answered him.

Kael turned toward the old cabinet against the far wall.

It had belonged to his father.

The lowest drawer had no visible lock.

Kael crossed the room and knelt before it.

He pressed his thumb beneath the frame.

A soft click sounded.

The drawer opened.

Inside lay a single folded letter sealed with his father's crest.

Kael stared at it.

He hadn't opened it in years.

Not since he was young.

He broke the remaining seal and unfolded the parchment.

His father's handwriting stared back at him.

Sharp.

Precise.

Unmistakable.

The first line made his chest tighten.

If the Veyne heir ever stands before the Moon Temple, do not trust what the court tells you.

Kael remembered reading those words years ago.

At the time, they had seemed like another warning from a dying king concerned about political instability.

Tonight, they felt different.

He continued reading.

Warnings about rival families.

Instructions concerning the western territories.

Notes about the Ashwood family's ambitions.

Then he reached a line near the bottom.

He stopped.

And remember this: her mother's debt to the crown was never settled.

Kael read it again.

Then once more.

"Her mother's debt?"

He frowned.

There was no mention of such a debt in the official records.

Nothing about Elara's mother.

Nothing about an obligation to the crown.

Nothing that explained why his father had considered it important enough to write down.

Kael searched the rest of the letter.

Nothing.

His father's words simply ended.

"Why would you leave me this without explaining it?"

The parchment offered no answer.

Kael lowered it slowly.

He thought about the Council.

He hadn't been present when the elders convened before dawn.

But Sarn had mentioned it.

An emergency session.

The doors sealed.

The scribes dismissed.

That alone was unusual.

Kael's fingers tightened around the letter.

And then there was the phrase.

The First Moon Blood has returned.

He still didn't understand what it meant.

But if the Council had reacted to those words with fear, and his father had left behind a warning about the Veyne heir and her mother's mysterious debt, then perhaps the history he'd been taught wasn't complete.

Maybe Alaric Veyne's treason had been exactly what the records claimed.

Maybe it hadn't.

Or perhaps the truth was buried somewhere between the two.

Kael closed his eyes.

Elara appeared in his mind again.

The moment before the rejection.

The Moonstone's light surrounding them.

The strange sensation that had passed through him when he touched her.

For one heartbeat, something inside him had recognized her.

He hadn't understood it.

He still didn't.

I protected the kingdom.

The thought came automatically.

Then another followed.

Or I protected myself from something I didn't understand.

Kael opened his eyes.

He wasn't ready to accept the second thought.

But he couldn't dismiss it anymore.

He looked back at the letter.

Near the bottom was another line.

Shorter.

Written more tightly than the others, as though his father had added it afterward.

If she ever reaches the temple, do not trust the first explanation you are given.

Kael went still.

His father had written that fifteen years ago.

Long before Elara was old enough to enter the ceremony.

Long before Kael had ever seen her.

How could he have known?

Kael slowly lowered the parchment.

"Was he warning me about her?"

He stared at the words.

"Or about what happens when a Veyne reaches that temple?"

There was no answer.

There couldn't be.

His father was dead.

And whatever secrets he had carried with him were buried with him.

Unless they weren't.

Kael folded the letter carefully.

He wouldn't take it to Vestrin.

Not yet.

He wouldn't take it to the Council.

Not until he knew what he was dealing with.

And he wouldn't show it to Evelyne.

Too many questions would follow.

Even Sarn would have to wait.

For now, this secret belonged to him.

Kael returned the letter to the drawer and locked it.

Then he stood.

His decision was simple.

He would investigate.

Quietly.

He would examine the sealed records concerning Alaric Veyne.

He would search for anything connected to Elara's mother.

He would look into his father's private correspondence.

And he would learn everything he could about the Moon Temple and the phrase the Council apparently feared.

He needed facts.

Not rumors.

Not assumptions.

Not the version of history he'd been handed as a child.

The truth.

Only then could he decide whether his rejection of Elara had truly been an act of duty.

Kael turned toward the window.

Gray light was beginning to creep across the horizon.

The palace was waking.

Soon, servants would begin their morning duties.

Soon, Elara would wake to a palace that no longer looked at her the way it had before the ceremony.

Kael's jaw tightened.

He had rejected her publicly.

He couldn't undo that.

But perhaps he could discover why the moment had happened at all.

His gaze hardened.

"What did you know about her, Father?"

Silence.

Kael looked toward the locked drawer.

For the first time since becoming king, he felt as though he were standing outside a door his own family had locked centuries ago.

And somewhere behind that door was a truth nobody wanted him to find.

He didn't know what that truth was.

He didn't know whether Elara was its victim, its heir, or its danger.

But he knew one thing.

He was going to find out.

And this time, Kael would not let the Council tell him what to believe.