Chapter 27

"First place. The winner of the Trial of Heart—competitor Aria Blackwood."

Elder Maren's voice rang through the great hall. The scoreboard behind her showed the final rankings in bold black letters. Aria's name sat at the top.

The hall erupted.

Competitors applauded—some genuinely, others through gritted teeth. Luna screamed so loud that a guard two rooms over came running. Blake, standing near the judges' table, allowed himself a small, satisfied nod.

Aria stood in the front row, her face carefully blank while her heart hammered against her ribs.

First place. She'd won.

Not by holding back. Not by playing it safe. By being exactly who she was—the girl who'd spent twenty-three years keeping broken things together.

Vivian sat three rows behind her. Aria didn't need to turn around to feel the fury radiating off her like heat from a furnace. Third place. Again. Behind Aria and Sera Thornfield.

The judges read through the detailed scores. Aria's empathy rating was the highest in competition history. Her practical solutions scored above every competitor by a wide margin. Three separate judges had noted her performance as "exceptional" in their written assessments.

On the platform, both kings sat with practiced indifference. Orion's leg was bouncing under the table—the only sign. Darius's hands were folded, his expression neutral. But through the bond, Aria felt them both.

Pride. Burning, overwhelming pride.

And something else. Fear. Because winning first place meant being visible. And being visible meant being a target.

The hall emptied slowly after the results. Aria accepted congratulations from competitors she barely knew—some sincere, some calculating, all watching her with a new kind of awareness.

This girl might actually become queen.

Luna caught her in the corridor outside.

"First place! Aria, first place!" Luna grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Do you know what this means? You're leading the overall rankings. You're ahead of Vivian, ahead of Sera, ahead of everyone."

"I know."

"You don't look happy about it."

"I'm happy. I'm also terrified." Aria glanced around. The corridor was clearing out, but walls had ears in this castle. "Walk with me?"

They walked to the gardens. The afternoon air was cool, the sky heavy with clouds threatening rain. They found a bench beneath a willow tree, far from windows and doors.

"I need to tell you something," Aria said. "Everything. The whole truth."

Luna straightened. "I'm listening."

And so Aria told her. Everything.

The mate bond. Both kings. The curse—how it worked, what it meant, the price of breaking it. Her father's abuse, his threats, his deal with Knox. Knox's connection to the original curse, his family feeding on royal suffering for three centuries. The gray-cloaked followers. Morgana's corrupted spell. The blood moon countdown.

And the latest revelation from Seraphina. Eternal death. A soul trapped forever, aware and alone.

Aria spoke for twenty minutes without stopping. She'd held it all inside for so long that once the dam broke, everything poured out in a rush.

Luna listened without interrupting. Her face went through stages—shock, then anger, then sadness, then something fierce and protective that Aria had never seen before.

When Aria finished, the silence stretched between them like a bridge.

"Say something," Aria whispered.

"I'm going to say several things." Luna's voice was steady in a way that surprised them both. "First. Your father is a monster, and when this is over, I want to be in the room when the kings deal with him."

"Luna—"

"Second. Knox is worse than a monster. He's a parasite. His entire family has been living off suffering, and that ends now."

"It's not that simple—"

"Third." Luna took both of Aria's hands. Her grip was tight. "You are not going to die. Not permanently, not temporarily, not eternally. I won't allow it. The kings won't allow it. And whatever ancient witch is whispering in your wolf's ear needs to find a better solution."

Aria's eyes burned. "What if there isn't one?"

"Then we make one. That's what you do, Aria. You find solutions when everyone else says there aren't any. You just proved it in the Trial of Heart." Luna's jaw was set. "You are the smartest, strongest, most stubborn person I have ever known. And if anyone can find a way through this, it's you."

A tear slid down Aria's cheek. She wiped it fast.

"Thank you," she said. "For not running."

"Running? Girl, I've been waiting for you to trust me with this for weeks. I knew something was going on. I just didn't know it was this insane." Luna shook her head slowly. "Two mates. Kings. A three-hundred-year-old curse. A conspiracy inside the castle. And your father in the middle of it all. Aria, this is the kind of thing they write books about."

"I'd rather just live it than read about it."

"Fair point."

Despite everything, Aria laughed. It was small and wet, but it was real.

Luna was quiet for a moment, processing. Aria could see her working through the information, sorting it, categorizing it the way Luna sorted everything—by what could be fixed now and what needed more time.

"The Trial of Heart," Luna said. "You placed first. That's a victory, Aria. A real one."

"It doesn't feel like a victory when everything else is on fire."

"It is though. Because every trial you win proves that you belong here. Not because of the mate bond. Not because of the curse. Because of you." Luna held her gaze. "When they write the history of this competition, they won't write about politics and conspiracies. They'll write about a girl who walked in with nothing and won on merit. And that girl is you."

They sat under the willow tree while the sky darkened and rain began to fall. Neither of them moved. The rain was warm, and after weeks of secrets and silence, it felt good to be honest.

"What's the plan?" Luna asked eventually.

"Darius is working on neutralizing Knox. Blake is watching the perimeter. Cade is watching the gray cloaks. And I'm trying to communicate with Morgana's spirit through my wolf."

"What can I do?"

"Watch Vivian. She's the weak link. Her father is using her, and I think she's starting to realize it. If we can get her away from Knox—"

"You want to flip her?"

"I want to give her a choice. Her father called her disposable. She doesn't know that yet, but she will. And when she does, she's going to need someone who isn't trying to use her."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "You want to befriend the woman who's been blackmailing you?"

"I want to save her from a father who would sacrifice her without blinking. Sound familiar?"

Luna stared at her. Then shook her head slowly. "Only you, Aria. Only you would try to rescue the person holding a knife to your throat."

"Is that a yes?"

"It's a 'you're crazy but I love you.' Which is basically a yes."

Aria leaned her head on Luna's shoulder. The rain was heavier now, drumming against the garden walls like a thousand tiny fists.

"Luna?"

"Yeah?"

"If this doesn't work—if we can't break the curse and everything falls apart—I want you to know that you're the reason I survived my life. Before the kings. Before the competition. Before any of this. You were the one person who looked at me and saw something worth keeping."

Luna's eyes glistened. "Don't talk like that."

"I mean it."

"I know you do. But you're not going to fail. You're going to find a way, because that's what you do. And then we're going to grow old together—you with your two ridiculously handsome king mates, and me with whoever is brave enough to put up with me."

Aria laughed. "Whoever that person is, they'd better be ready."

"For the chaos? Absolutely not. But they'll love it anyway."

They walked back to the castle in the rain, shoulders touching. For the first time in weeks, the weight on Aria's chest felt lighter.

Not because the danger was less. But because she wasn't carrying it alone anymore.

That night, in her new room with the door locked and the wards up, she felt her wolf stir.

Not a growl. Not a hum. Something deeper.

A whisper. Distant and ancient.

She closed her eyes and listened.

And for the first time, Morgana's voice came through clear—not feelings, not fragments, but words.

"You found the truth about the Knox bloodline. Good. Now find what they've hidden. In the archives. The restricted section. There is a book bound in white leather. Find it before they do."

The voice faded.

Aria opened her eyes.

A book. In the restricted archives. Something Knox's family had been hiding for three hundred years.

She was going to find it.

Tonight.