Mag-log inValerie The burned pages were still on the table when I left Nadia’s study.I had read the surviving lines three times. Royal Tri-Core. Living keys. Abyssal bindings. Every word sat in my chest like a second heartbeat I hadn’t asked for. Maya’s question from dinner kept replaying: Is the bad uncle in the dark real? I still didn’t have an answer I could give a child.Nathan was waiting in the corridor outside, tablet in hand, looking like the world had not just gotten darker.“Sixty-one buyers, twenty-two Lycan houses, and four camera crews,” he said, falling into step beside me. “Every one of them is inside and seated. Each is holding a glass of the champagne you picked.”I kept walking. “Cameras are permitted only in the first two rows.”“That is the rule I set for them.”“What about phones?”“Front rows can keep them. Back rows left theirs at the door.”“Good.” I stopped at the dressing-room entrance and finally looked at him. “Guards?”"Dimitri's people are stationed at every door
Nadia Valerie didn't knock when she arrived at the archive. Shortly before dawn, she pushed the door open a bit and saw me still sitting at the long table, where I had been since the previous night."You haven't slept," she said."And neither have you.""Maya's dream wouldn't let me sleep." She walked in, and Dimitri came in after her. "Please tell me you found something."I pointed to the three scrolls spread out in front of me, each one kept flat by small stones at its corners. "I found enough to make both of you uneasy."Dimitri shut the door and rested his shoulder against it. "Then just say it straight.""The three keys aren't objects. I searched for hours for a vault, a chest, or anything that could be locked away, and there's nothing of that kind in the texts. The keys are people.""People?" Valerie said again."Three people who share a single core. The old writers called it the Royal Tri-Core."Valerie placed her hand on the edge of the table. "The three of them.""Correct."
Dimitri Raiders had attacked two supply wagons on the eastern road, and both of them were carrying medicine meant for the border villages. By the time my guards came back with the survivors, the poison had already taken most of the cargo."Bring them before me," I said, and I took my place at the central dais of the judgment hall.Valerie sat beside me with a composed expression, but I knew her well enough by now to notice the tension she was holding carefully just beneath the surface."You don't have to be here for this," I said in a quiet voice."I want to be here. If I'm going to rule beside you, then I'm not going to hide from the difficult parts of ruling."The guards brought three raiders forward. Their hands were bound, and their eyes held the particular defiance of men who had always expected to be caught eventually and had made their peace with that."Name your allegiance," I said.None of them answered.In moments like this, I felt the absence of the old curse very keenly.
Valerie We didn’t bother to answer the question. We slipped away from the last ceremony an hour before the official schedule said we could. The moment the final guest had been guided into the banquet hall, Dimitri's hand found mine, and he pulled me toward the quiet corridor that led to our private rooms."We have an hour," he said, already turning the lock on the door behind us. "Maybe less.""That is barely enough time for a proper rest.""I wasn't planning on resting."He walked across the room and lifted the crown gently from my head. He set it down on the table nearby with such care that it stood in sharp contrast to the hunger already growing in his eyes."You've been watching me all day," I said."I've been watching you for months. Today just gave me a reason to do it where everyone could see."His mouth found mine, and this time there was nothing careful about it, nothing like the slow, reverent way he had kissed me the night before. We had both made it through the heavy weig
Nathan The appearance on the balcony pulled in cameras from both realms, their equipment tilted upward toward the royal couple standing above them.I took a spot near the front of the press line, close enough to catch every last detail. I was already putting together the next V-Luxe campaign in my mind as I watched Valerie and Dimitri step into view above us."They look good together in photos," my social media director said from beside me, already taking pictures on her own phone. "This basically writes the campaign for us.""We have to be careful about how we frame this," I said. "Nothing that comes across as too obviously cashing in on the royal connection. What we're after is elegance, not propaganda.“Something more understated, then. Let the gown do the talking.”“Exactly right.”She put her phone down and tilted her head in my direction. “What about the colors, though? Should we keep everything in that pale blue range?”“Yes. Keep it gentle and soft. Ivory, pale blue, and jus
Valerie The festivities went on well into the night, but I stepped away sooner than custom probably called for. Now that the crown rested fully on my shoulders at last, the tiredness had caught up with me more quickly than I had thought it would.The next morning, I summoned the council. The halls of the citadel still had not fully cleared of the leftover traces from the formal coronation banquet."Your Majesty," said the council's remaining senior members as they stood up when I walked into the chamber. Every time I heard that title aimed at me, it still felt oddly heavy."There are several matters I need to address," I said, and I took my seat at the head of the table, next to Dimitri's empty chair. He had insisted that I sit there alone for this first session. "The first of them concerns V-Luxe.""Your business interests, Your Majesty?" Elder Corin asked, easing himself slowly back down into his chair."My business, and every single person who works in it," I said, laying both han







