LOGIN"You were told to erase the name. You were never told to erase the person."The words had barely left the stranger's mouth when the metal inside the eastern wall turned with a heavy click.The Queen looked toward the sound."Who is there?"Nobody answered.The ring scraped against stone again. This time, it moved closer to the opening.The masked leader struggled to keep the iron bar in place. One end had slipped from its bracket, leaving the door crooked in its frame. His arms shook under the strain."Someone needs to help me!"Lyra tightened her hold on Cael. His injured leg had begun to buckle, and the hand pressed against his shoulder was stained with fresh blood."Can you stand?" she asked."For a little while.""That's not an answer.""It's the only one I've got."She shifted his weight against her. Cael tried to straighten, but pain pulled a sharp breath from him.The Queen stepped toward the masked leader."Keep holding the bar.""I'm trying!"She reached for the loose bracket
"Tell her what you were ordered to erase."The voice came from just beyond the eastern opening. Whoever stood on the other side hadn't moved far. Even the stranger seemed aware of it. His eyes stayed fixed on the narrow gap, and his fingers kept rubbing against the seams of his trousers.The Queen stepped toward him. "What name did you remove?""I changed the corridor register to hide Cael. I've already told you that.""That isn't what I asked."He swallowed. "There was another entry.""What entry?""One that wasn't supposed to remain in the record."Behind them, the iron door gave a rough metallic groan. The damaged bar was slipping out of its bracket. The masked leader glanced over his shoulder, then pressed both hands against the frame."Talk while we still have time," he warned.The stranger barely acknowledged him."The register recorded everyone who entered the lower passage. Keepers, guards, attendants. Anyone who carried a child through that route had to be recorded."The Quee
Nobody moved.The hand remained pressed against the eastern wall, its fingers spread over the narrow opening. Dust clung to the skin. The ring sat on the middle finger, its three cuts catching the weak light from the chamber.The stranger took a step backward."Who is that?" the Queen demanded.He didn't answer."You're the one who said you'd never seen that ring before.""I said I wasn't wearing one.""Then tell me why you're looking at it like you've seen a ghost."His eyes stayed fixed on the hand."Because I know what that mark means."The masked leader shifted near the iron door. The metal bar holding it in place had begun to bend, and a thin groan came from the frame."We don't have time for this," he said.Lyra tightened her arm around Cael when his injured leg threatened to give way. His shoulder was trembling, and his breathing had become shallow."Stay against me," she whispered."I'm trying."His attention remained on the hand. The fourth cut beneath his collarbone showed t
The iron door lurched inward again, forcing the masked leader to throw his weight against it. The locking bar scraped across the frame, scattering rust onto the floor.“Someone's forcing it open,” he grunted.Lyra hurried over and pressed her shoulder against the door. “How long can you hold it?”“Ask me again when my arms stop shaking.”The Queen barely registered their struggle. Her attention remained fixed on the eastern wall, though her fingers were still wrapped around the parchment.“Who sent me away?” she asked again.The voice behind the iron door answered with obvious irritation. “Stop asking questions that will get you killed.”She faced the door. “You know who gave the order.”“I know what happened after you left.”“Then tell me.”A pause followed. When the voice returned, it sounded closer to the other side of the iron.“You still think the person who gave the order was the one in control?”The Queen's mouth tightened. “Someone ordered the guards to remove me. Someone made
The Queen kept her eyes on the parchment.“Don't read it aloud,” she said. “The keepers warned me never to speak that name near the binding.”The stranger stood on the other side of the iron door, one hand pressed against his wounded face. “You still believe their warnings?”“I saw what happened when the first binding broke.”A heavy blow came from behind the door.The iron shuddered in its frame. Dust slipped from the stone above it.Lyra stepped closer to Cael. “How long will it hold?”The masked leader examined the narrow markings around the door. “I can't tell. Something has changed in the mechanism since we entered.”“What does that mean?” Lyra asked.“The lock isn't holding the door in place anymore. Something on the other side is working against it.”Another impact shook the chamber.The leader moved away from the door. “We need to find out what this man knows before that lock gives way.”Cael shifted against the wall. His injured leg trembled under his weight, and he caught hi
“Open it. We don't have much time.”The voice came through the iron door again.Cael's body stiffened. He knew that voice. He couldn't place the man's face, but he remembered a dark room, damp stone beneath his bare feet, and a hand pressed over his mouth. Someone had crouched beside him and whispered the same warning.Stay quiet. Don't let them hear you.“Cael?” Lyra moved closer. “What's wrong?”“I know that voice.”The masked leader started toward the door. Lyra caught his arm before he reached it.“Don't.”“We can't leave whoever's outside there.”“We don't know who's outside,” she said, keeping her grip on him.The Queen stood beside the open compartment, her attention fixed on the door. The strip of cloth lay inside, its stitched symbol partly visible beneath the edge of the metal plate.“Who are you?” she called.“Open the door!”Something scraped across the floor on the other side. It sounded heavy, as though someone had dragged a piece of metal along the passage. A knock foll
Lyra collapsed to her knees.Pain ripped through her chest so hard she thought her ribs had cracked open.The crypt blurred around her. Black stone. Candlelight. Dead kings still kneeling with hollow eyes fixed on her like worshippers before an altar.And beneath everything—A heartbeat.Not hers.
The royal crypts sat beneath the palace.Buried deep enough that even the servants whispered about them like ghosts.Lyra learned that quickly from the silence alone.Nobody spoke as they descended the spiral staircase beneath the eastern wing. Not the guards. Not the trembling servant carrying a l
Cassian dropped hard onto the stairs.Stone bit into his knees.His sword rang once against the crypt floor before skidding into darkness.Lyra lunged for him before she realized she’d moved.“Cassian.”Black veins spread beneath his skin.Starting at his throat.Climbing fast.His left eye remaine
Cassian was bleeding.Lyra saw it before he did.A black cut sliced across his ribs where one of the dead kings had driven rusted steel beneath his guard. Blood soaked through his shirt, dark against dark.He kept fighting anyway.Like pain was just another room he’d learned to walk through.The cr







