Morwenna’s POVHeat had been simmering in my chest long before I stepped into the moonlit hall. The air here always carried a hum, like the stones themselves remembered old magic and whispered it back to anyone who could listen. But tonight, the hum was wrong—fast, sharp, restless. The palace wasn’t just watching me. It was bracing for what I was about to do.Leofric was at the far end, leaning against a pillar like he owned the night. Silver thread caught the torchlight along the black of his doublet, sketching out the hard line of his shoulders, the solid weight of his arms. He looked every inch the warrior-king they whispered about in court—but it was his eyes that got me. Steady. Intent. Like he’d been waiting for this exact moment.“You came,” he said. Not a welcome. A win.“I said I would,” I told him, even if my voice betrayed the hesitation I wished I could hide.“You’ve been avoiding me.”I crossed the marble slowly, my boots echoing louder than they should have. “I’ve been…
Morwenna POVElira wouldn't stop staring at me.Not with fear. Not with confusion. But with something far more unnerving—certainty. Like she knew me in ways even I hadn't dared know myself. I tried not to show the trembling in my fingers as I poured tea into the obsidian cups. The scent of mint and dreamroot filled the air, but it didn't mask the scent of time magic that clung to her skin."You're sure about what you saw?" I asked her, setting the teapot down with a soft clink. My voice sounded far calmer than I felt.Elira's eyes didn't waver. "I watched you burn the Bone Seer's temple. With your own hands."Leofric tensed beside me, jaw locked, eyes narrowing. "When?""Three winters from now. But time is bleeding. It could come sooner. Or later. Or not at all."She spoke in riddles, but not the playful kind. No, hers were the kind that made your bones ache with the weight of what could be.Leofric reached across the table, resting his hand on mine. Warm. Grounding. A simple reminder
Morwenna’s POVI didn’t need a crown to feel the weight of the realm on my skull. It was there in every stare from the court, every whisper about Elira, every shadow lengthened by prophecy and blood. But that night, I wore one anyway. Not because I cared for ceremony—gods, no. But because the Bone Seer had sent me a message.And I intended to answer it in gold and flame.The coronation feast had ended hours ago, but I sat alone in the high chamber, stripped of gown and jewels, barefoot and still crowned. The crown was heavy—literally, forged with moongold and bone fragments from ancient beasts—but it wasn’t the metal digging into my scalp that kept me awake.It was the knowledge that my daughter was sleeping three floors below me. A daughter born of a future I hadn’t yet lived. A daughter hunted through timelines. A daughter I couldn’t remember bearing, but whose eyes mirrored mine so hauntingly it undid me.The door creaked open behind me. I didn’t turn.“You’re brooding,” Leofric’s
Morwenna's POVI didn’t need to ask who she was. Elira's eyes mirrored my own, but older. Weirder. Like the moon had burned secrets into her pupils. Her voice had a rhythm I didn't recognize, and when she said "mother," it didn’t feel like a child's plea.It felt like a prophecy detonating.She stood in the ruins like she'd walked out of fire. Tattered silk clung to her skin, streaked with ash and dried blood, and the mark on her collarbone—a spiraled crescent—glowed faintly in the dusk. My blood turned to stone."She's from a rift," Leofric said quietly beside me. "Time magic. It's leaking."Elira didn't flinch when the guards aimed blades at her throat. She looked straight at me, calm, like she had already lived this moment a hundred times."I watched you die," she said. "More than once."My knees nearly gave out. Leofric steadied me, but I couldn’t stop staring at the girl—no, the woman. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen, but her eyes were centuries old."Who is your father?
Morwenna’s POVElira hadn’t stirred in hours. Her body lay limp on the bed, her skin feverish and slick with sweat, but her breathing was shallow and steady. I sat beside her, unmoving, hands clasped tight around her wrist as if that anchor alone could keep her here.“She’s burning through her own soul,” Leofric said from behind me, quiet. “Whatever she did to banish the Bone Seer… it’s not over.”I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. The truth sat like lead in my chest. Elira hadn’t simply cast him away—she had ripped through time itself, shattering what remained of the veil. I could feel it in the air. Magic was wrong. Twisted. The moon’s pull was erratic, its light bending unnaturally through the window.“She’s from the future,” I whispered. “And I don’t think she was ever meant to come back.”Leofric walked to me, placing a steady hand on my shoulder. “You saved her. Whatever else is coming, she’s alive because of you.”No. She came back because of me. But saving her? That was still uncert
Morwenna's POVI didn’t sleep.Sleep is a mercy, and mercy has never come easily to women like me.I stared at the ceiling of my chambers, draped in embroidered silk, but I felt no warmth. No safety. Just the echoes of a girl calling me mother when I hadn’t yet earned the word. Elira—born of time and ruin. Her voice had been soft but clear, as if destiny itself had been calling. And I had no answers for her.Now the castle feels smaller. Too many eyes. Too many secrets walking the halls like ghosts.By dawn, I’m standing by the eastern tower, the wind unraveling my braid as I stare at the crack that has split the horizon. The time fracture. I can feel it bleeding through the air like oil in water. A smell of metal. A taste of thunder.Behind me, the footsteps I know best. Leofric.He doesn’t speak immediately, just wraps his arms around my waist and rests his chin on my shoulder. "You haven’t slept.""Neither have you."He holds tighter. "I dreamt of fire. And a crown. But not on my h