登入Nineteen years passed faster than anyone expected.The North no longer resembled the kingdom Eros and Freya had fought so hard to save. The scars of war had faded beneath thriving cities, prosperous villages, and generations of children who knew peace as their birthright. Roads stretched across territories once divided by fear. Markets overflowed with trade from distant lands. Laughter filled places where silence had once lingered.The kingdom had become everything they had dreamed it could be.And at the center of it stood the Draven family.Freya often found herself wondering how time had managed to move so quickly.One moment Evren had been a child chasing butterflies through palace gardens.Now he towered over most warriors in the North.The years had shaped him into a young man who carried himself with quiet confidence. His dark hair had grown longer, often falling across silver eyes that seemed capable of seeing things others missed. There was something about him that drew atten
The news of Freya's third pregnancy was received with varying levels of dignity.Freya accepted it with happiness.Eros accepted it with cautious optimism.The kingdom accepted it with celebration.Evren and Lucien accepted it as an opportunity to ask approximately five hundred questions a day.By the time Freya reached her final months, she had answered every possible variation of how babies arrived, where babies slept, whether babies could join sword training, and why babies weren't born already old enough to play games.The last question came from Lucien.The answer disappointed him greatly.Years passed quickly after that.One moment the boys were small enough to fit in her arms.The next they were racing through the fortress like storms in human form.Evren grew into a thoughtful child whose curiosity only deepened with age. He wanted to understand everything. Books fascinated him. Ancient stories fascinated him. Questions fascinated him most of all. The mark over his heart remai
The fortress had survived wars, political disasters, divine interventions, and several centuries of Eros Draven's temper. What it was not prepared for was two boys under the age of two. Freya realized that shortly after Lucien was born. Evren had greeted his younger brother with the kind of excitement usually reserved for discovering buried treasure. For the first three days, he followed the healers around the fortress demanding updates. By the fourth day, he had appointed himself Lucien's personal guardian. By the fifth, everyone understood that separating him from the baby would require military intervention. The situation only became more complicated as Lucien grew older. Unlike Evren, whose presence often carried an inexplicable sense of wonder, Lucien arrived in the world determined to make himself known through sheer personality. Even as an infant, he possessed a stubborn streak strong enough to rival his father's. If Evren wanted something, he usually found creative ways to
The celebrations lasted for three days.Freya hadn't expected that.She knew the kingdom would be happy. The birth of a royal heir was always a significant event, especially after everything the North had endured over the years. What she hadn't anticipated was the sheer scale of it. Villages held feasts. Bonfires burned throughout the night. Songs were written before the child was even a week old, and somehow every version portrayed him as either a future hero or a tiny menace destined to terrorize the palace staff.Judging by what she'd seen so far, the second version seemed more believable.At the moment, Evren was asleep in her arms, blissfully unaware that an entire kingdom had already fallen in love with him.Freya sat beside the nursery window while afternoon sunlight spilled across the room. Snow still covered the mountains beyond the fortress, but spring had begun creeping into the valleys below. The world felt softer these days.Peace had finally become real.A quiet knock so
The storm should have hidden the stars.Every healer inside the royal fortress would later swear to that fact.Rain lashed against the windows hard enough to shake the glass. Thunder rolled across the mountains without pause, and clouds covered the sky from horizon to horizon. Yet sometime after midnight, people began noticing points of silver light appearing above the fortress. At first there were only a few. Then dozens. Then hundreds. Before long, the entire sky glittered as though the storm no longer possessed the authority to conceal it.Inside the royal chambers, nobody paid attention.Not at first.Every thought centered on Freya.The room buzzed with controlled activity as healers moved back and forth carrying supplies while attendants prepared fresh water and linens. The atmosphere remained focused despite the growing tension. Royal births were always important. This one carried the weight of history.Not because of crowns or kingdoms.Because nobody truly knew what was about
By the seventh month of Freya's pregnancy, the entire kingdom had become invested in the arrival of the royal child.What began as excitement had gradually evolved into something closer to obsession.Every village seemed determined to contribute something. Handmade blankets arrived from the eastern territories. Wooden toys appeared from mountain settlements. Jewelry, clothing, carvings, books, and gifts filled entire rooms within the fortress. At one point, a farmer traveled three days simply to deliver a carved wooden horse he had spent months making.Freya found the generosity overwhelming.Eros found it concerning.Mostly because he had become convinced every object entering the fortress required inspection.Freya eventually threatened to ban him from the nursery if he continued interrogating gift bearers.The threat proved surprisingly effective.For approximately two days.After that, he simply became more discreet about it.The nursery itself occupied a quiet wing overlooking th
The prison felt colder after the stranger spoke.She does not belong here.The words stayed lodged inside Freya’s chest long after silence settled across the underground chamber. Torches flickered weakly against damp stone walls while distant water dripped somewhere deeper below, the sound slow and
Freya woke with a scream trapped in her throat.Her body jerked upright before her mind fully caught up, breathing unevenly as silver light flickered beneath her skin for half a second before disappearing again. She stared around the room, disoriented, panic still clinging to her chest.Then the me
Freya had never liked silence.Not because it frightened her, but because silence always seemed to carry memories with it. The quieter the world became, the louder her thoughts turned.And inside Eros’s fortress, silence felt alive.It followed her through the long stone corridors, through towering
The fear vanished from Eros’s face so quickly Freya almost thought she imagined it.Almost.But she knew what she saw.Not concern. Not caution.Fear.Real fear.His hand stayed around her arm for a moment longer before he let go and turned toward the shattered balcony doors. Outside, the fortress







