EstrellaThe moon hung heavy over the treetops, casting silver light on the valley below. From where I stood atop the ridge, the walls of Mallory stretched like a serpent in the darkness…ancient, proud, and soon to be broken.I exhaled slowly, the weight of my anticipation turning my breath to fog in the chill night air. The time had come.Behind me, hundreds of my rogue army waited in tense silence, their eyes glowing in the dark, muscles coiled like springs. I turned toward my commanders. “I want ten of our best,” I said sharply. “Silent, swift, and loyal. Send them through the hidden archway on the northern ridge. Elena said there would be only a handful of guards at this hour.”Darion, tall and dark-eyed, nodded at once. “As you command.”Within minutes, ten of my most lethal shadows were assembled, cloaked in black, blades gleaming faintly beneath their tunics. Without a word, they slipped into the darkness and began their descent down the rocky slope toward the wall.I watched
Estrella The sun dipped low behind the dense forest as I rode at the front of my army, the thunder of hooves and boots striking the earth like war drums behind me. The road to Mallory had never seemed shorter, yet it had taken me weeks to reach this point. Every mile was a reckoning. Every heartbeat, a prelude to vengeance.I had waited long enough.The letter in my saddlebag had been crumpled from how tightly I’d gripped it since the moment it arrived. My fingers still itched from the fury it sparked. Elena…my daughter, my blood, thrown into a dungeon like common filth. And by whom?Melody.My twin.The irony did not escape me. Her beloved Mallory had dared to lay hands on my child, to disgrace my bloodline, and now it would crumble for its arrogance.Elena’s last letter had been short, but it had served its purpose.But then nothing followed.No response to my next letter. Or the one after. I had sent a dozen messages, all unanswered. Something had gone wrong. Something had hap
Giovanni The heavy oak doors of the War Room swung open with a groan, the scent of iron and old parchment greeting us as Aaron and I stepped inside. Torches flared on the walls, their golden light dancing across polished stone and maps stretched wide across the center table. Commanders, generals, and emissaries stood at attention, murmuring anxiously amongst themselves as we entered.Their eyes turned toward us the moment we crossed the threshold.“Your Highnesses,” Commander Thorne bowed low, his dark gray uniform crisp, his sword at his side.“Report,” Aaron said sharply, his voice clipped, all traces of the softness he had shown with Darya moments ago completely vanished.The man straightened, gesturing to a younger patrol scout who stepped forward. He looked barely out of adolescence, his armor slightly too big, his hands trembling as he clutched a rolled parchment. But his eyes were sharp with urgency.“We spotted movement from the Northern Crest,” the scout said, unfolding th
AaronI don’t know how long I stood there, holding her in my arms.My sister.My little sister.The very soul that had haunted my dreams for years, whose absence had carved a permanent hollow inside my chest. She was warm and real. Not a figment of childhood memory or whispered family stories. Not the echo of a lullaby sung too long ago. She was right here in my arms trembling, hesitant, but alive.And the moment I held her, something inside of me snapped back into place. As though time had folded itself and restored a piece of my heart I hadn’t even realized had been missing all along.Darya.Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I blinked them back quickly, not wanting to overwhelm her, but it was useless. One slipped free, tracing a slow path down my cheek. I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I was the royal Prince of Mallory, the General of our armies, the shield of our borders.Right now, I was just a big brother holding the sister he’d thought he’d lost forever.Giovanni sto
Zoraya (Darya) The silence after the doctors left was almost sacred.I sat quietly on the edge of my bed, fingers brushing lightly over my stomach where the salve still lingered, cool and slick against my skin. The echo of the twin heartbeats played over and over in my mind like a lullaby I couldn’t forget.Two.Two babies.It was still hard to grasp.I hadn’t even fully accepted the idea of being a mother to one child. But now, there were two growing inside me. Two tiny souls, pulsing with life, hidden beneath my skin like whispered secrets from the Moon Goddess herself. My breath trembled as I placed both hands over my belly, palms flat, as though I might feel something stir beneath the surface. But there was nothing yet, only the soft thudding of my own heart and the faint memory of theirs.A strange warmth blossomed inside me. For the first time in what felt like lifetimes, I wasn’t terrified of what was inside me. I wasn’t ashamed. I wasn’t broken. I was full of life, of ne
Zoraya (Darya)I stared at them.The room had fallen oddly quiet. Too quiet. The walls seemed to hold their breath just like I had.“Twins,” the healer said again, his voice soft and laced with a kind of reverence I didn’t understand.My mouth parted slightly, but no words came. My heart was pounding, thumping against my ribcage like a frightened creature desperate to escape. My gaze flicked down to my belly, then back up to the faces around me.Twins?I didn’t… I didn’t know what that meant. Not really.Two babies?Was that even possible?I looked to Queen Melody instinctively, my eyes wide with confusion and fear. She must have seen the blankness in my stare, the absence of understanding in my silence, because her expression softened immediately.She leaned closer and brushed a lock of my hair back from my face with a tender touch. “Darya,” she said gently, her voice as calming as the warm sunlight that spilled through the window beside us, “do you understand what they mean?”I s