CHAPTER 21 the letter from Mina

My hands shook as I took the folded parchment from the guard.I knew that seal. A small crescent moon pressed into dark wax, the same mark I used to find on the little notes my nursemaid left tucked under my pillow when I was a girl, silly things like sleep well, little star or tomorrow we'll pick berries by the stream."Mira," I whispered."You know her well," Damian said from inside his cell, his voice almost gentle now. "She practically raised you those first few years. Combed your hair. Sang you to sleep. Nobody in the palace ever thought twice about a quiet nursemaid coming and going through every hallway, every private room, completely unnoticed.""Shut up," Cassian said sharply, stepping between me and the bars.I didn't wait to hear anything else. I turned and hurried up the dungeon stairs, my father and Cassian close behind me, my heart hammering with every step.We reached my chambers, and I broke the wax seal with trembling fingers, unfolding the parchment inside.The handw

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-22

CHAPTER 22 Voices in the Dark

The laugh echoed again, closer this time, bouncing off the stone walls until it seemed to come from every direction at once."Show yourself," Cassian shouted, sword already drawn, his soldiers fanning out through the narrow dungeon corridor.The laugh stopped. Silence pressed down on us, thick and heavy."Search every cell," Cassian ordered. "Every shadow. There has to be another way in or out of this place."The guards moved fast, torches raised, checking behind every barred door, every dark corner. Marcus watched from his own cell, looking almost as confused as the rest of us. Elira didn't even lift her head."There," one of the guards called, pointing toward the far wall behind Damian's now-empty cell. "This stone. It's loose."Cassian crossed the corridor quickly, running his hand along the edge of the wall. With a hard push, the stone shifted, revealing a narrow gap behind it, barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through, leading into blackness."A hidden passage," my fathe

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-23

CHAPTER 23 The List

Tomas's hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold the papers he pulled from inside his cloak."Slow down," Cassian said, lowering his sword slightly but not sheathing it. "Start from the beginning. Who are you, and why are you hiding in a weapons cave under my keep?"Tomas swallowed hard. "I work in the royal archive. Copying old records, filing treasury reports, nothing important, really. Three weeks ago, I was asked to help pack a shipment of old documents for storage, papers that were supposed to be destroyed, actually, records too old to matter anymore.""But you didn't destroy them," I guessed."I got curious," Tomas admitted. "I read a few pages before I burned the rest, and what I read scared me too much to finish the job. I hid the papers instead, and I've been running ever since, terrified someone would notice they were missing.""Running to a secret tunnel underneath my keep," Cassian said flatly. "That's a strange place to hide.""I didn't know it led here," Tomas sa

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-26

CHAPTER 24 What Freya Left Behind

Nobody moved for a moment. We all just stared at the letter sitting on Freya's desk, the crescent moon seal catching the pale morning light."Don't touch it," Cassian said quickly, stepping in front of me before I could reach for it. "We don't know what it is.""It's a letter, Cassian, not a bomb.""After tonight, I'm not ruling anything out," he said, but he stepped aside and let me approach the desk.I picked it up carefully, my fingers trembling slightly as I broke the seal. The parchment inside was thick and expensive, the handwriting elegant and controlled, nothing like the shaky letter Mira had left behind.Aurora,If you're reading this, you've already found the list, or you're close enough to it that it no longer matters whether I hide. I won't insult either of us by pretending otherwise.Yes, my name is there. Yes, I've known about the Ashen Circle for years. But before you let Cassian's anger, or your father's grief, decide what kind of person I am, I want you to understand

Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-28

Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 24

CHAPTER 21 the letter from Mina

CHAPTER 22 Voices in the Dark

CHAPTER 23 The List

CHAPTER 24 What Freya Left Behind