บททั้งหมดของ HIS FATHER'S LUNA: บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

The throne room smelled like beeswax and old stone, the same smell Emma had scrubbed out of the floor tiles a hundred times. Today it hit her differently. Today she wasn't kneeling in it.Every head turned as she entered. The murmur died in pieces, table by table, like a wave losing its strength before it reached the shore. By the time she reached the center of the room, the silence was total.She kept walking. Her legs remembered the path she'd swept this exact stretch of marble a dozen times, always with her eyes down, always careful not to be seen. Now she walked it upright, and it felt like wearing someone else's skin.Nobles. Dozens of them, dressed for the occasion, dressed to be seen judging her. Emma recognized faces from years of carrying trays past them, invisible then, unbearably visible now.The nobles greeted her one by one, as custom required, and Emma understood within the first three bows that "greeting" was only the word they used for it.She sat in the smaller throne

The door opened before Alden finished rolling up his map."Forgive the interruption." Lord Victor Ashford stepped into the tutoring chamber, his robes immaculate despite the hour, a folder of parchment tucked beneath one arm. "I was told I'd find the Queen still at her lessons."The tutors rose at once, bowing low. Emma stood more slowly, unsure of the correct amount of formality for a man she'd only seen from a distance at her wedding, at court, always near Jasper's shoulder like a fixture of the throne itself."Lord Ashford." She dipped her head. "I wasn't expecting you until this evening.""I'm early. A bad habit." He smiled, and it reached his eyes easily, the kind of smile that made a room relax around him. "I hoped I might speak with you before the council meets. If you can spare a few minutes." Emma glanced at Tobias, already gathering his books with the discreet haste of a man who understood exactly when a room no longer needed him."Of course," she said. The tutors filed out

Emma didn't remember walking back to her chambers. She only remembered arriving, closing the door, and standing there with her back against it, breathing like she'd been running. I don't love you, Emma. I never did.She wanted to believe it was never true. It would have been so much simpler if it were true.Naya found her there twenty minutes later, still in the same spot, and didn't ask what had happened. She simply set down the gown she'd been carrying and waited, quiet, until Emma's breathing evened out on its own."The Council meets within the hour, Your Majesty," Naya said gently. "This is your first sitting at the Council. Emma had forgotten entirely. She almost laughed at the timing, some dark, tired humor bubbling up at the idea of walking straight from Ethan's cruelty into a room full of men who'd spent years calling her a curse and convincing her Dad that she was the major problem of his downfall. "Then I suppose I should get dressed," she said.The Council chamber was sma

"I know you weren't trying to be." His voice gentled further, forgiving, understanding. You are going to be Queen of Valenmoor. Queens do not chase their husbands through corridors, weeping over silence. Queens wait, with grace, and let the men around them come to understand what they've been given." He tilted his head, studying her with something that looked, convincingly, like pride. "You were made for that throne, Celeste. I have always believed it. But a throne requires more than desire. It requires patience most girls your age have never had to learn."Celeste nodded slowly, some of the hurt in her face folding itself into something more composed. "You're right. I let my temper get the better of me.""You let your heart get the better of you," Victor corrected gently. "That isn't a flaw, my dear. It simply isn't a Queen's temperament yet. It will be, in time, with the right guidance.""Should I apologize to him?" "No." Victor's answer came quickly, smooth. "Let him come to you.

The rider was young, barely older than a boy, his uniform still dusted with the road and his hands shaking faintly as he stood before the war room table."Tell me everything," Jasper said. "From the beginning.""Yes, Your Majesty." The rider swallowed hard. "Patrol spotted movement past the northern ridgeline three days ago. Small at first, we thought hunters, maybe traders straying off the usual routes. By yesterday morning the numbers had grown. Organized formations, Your Majesty. Northern colors."Marcus Hale, already standing at the map spread across the table, leaned forward, tracing a line along the ridge with one finger. "How many?""Perhaps three hundred. Difficult to say for certain from the distance we held.""Three hundred." Jasper's voice stayed even, though something behind his eyes had sharpened considerably. "That isn't an invasion force, Commander.""No," Marcus agreed slowly. "It isn't." "Then what is it?"The rider hesitated. "The patrol captain believed it was a tes