Chapter 48 WHEN THE FORGOTTEN QUEEN STIRS
Chapter 48 WHEN THE FORGOTTEN QUEEN STIRS
WHEN THE FORGOTTEN QUEEN STIRS
AZRATH'S POV
I had not opened the guarded scrolls in centuries because they were sealed behind fire wards older than Drakoria itself and bound with divine ash.
The scrolls were written in a language even dragons feared to speak aloud. I had sworn never to return to them because every prophecy ever written had cost me blood and the sanity of my kingdom.
Despite all of this, my hands moved on their own. All that had been happening in the Kingdom lately was enough fuel to drive me down here.
The scroll unfurled with a sound like bone cracking.
“When moon-blood meets eternal flame, the forgotten queen shall rise, and chains of gods shall break.”
I stared at the words longer than I should have. I went over the words Moon-blood and Lycan blood.
There had only ever been one queen the gods themselves feared enough to bind and erase. One queen whose name had been struck from history and replaced with lies. One queen whose rebellion had nearly burned the heavens, that queen was the Void Queen.
My chest tightened as understanding crept in slowly and mercilessly.
Seraphine had survived the blood moon, no ordinary wolf would do that.
She had survived the brand of eternal flame, and survived the mountain, she had even survived the mark that had enslaved others before her. She carried fire without being consumed by it, and moonlight did not reject her.
I had told myself that it was just mere coincidence. I tried to convince myself that I was just imagining the resemblance. But the scrolls did not lie.
I closed my eyes and pressed my palm to the stone table, feeling the heat from it breathing into my skin. I had loved the first Lycan Queen once. I loved her enough to spare her when I should have killed her.
I loved her enough to hesitate and it was that hesitation that had destroyed the world.
Now that her soul had returned wearing the face of a girl I was unsure how to handle, I was caught in a thick web. Seraphine was not meant to exist. Yet she was.
Why was I shutting myself out of the truth? This wasn't mere coincidence, Seraphine is the Lycan queen and I shouldn't have to hesitate any longer.
A knock echoed sharply through the sanctum, disrupting my thoughts.
I sealed the scroll with a snap of fire before anyone could glimpse its words. When the doors opened, a lesser dragon appeared, bowing his head low, his wings trembled as he maintained his poise.
“My king,” he said carefully, “ more rumors are spreading.”
Of course they were.
“They heard about the wolf surviving the blood moon,” he continued.
I did not respond to him, there was no need for me to.
The silence stretched until he bowed again and left.
All I felt in that moment was weakness. The word was circling me like a vulture.
They had not seen Seraphine shaking on the stone floor with blood on her hands and terror in her eyes. They had not heard the way her heartbeat stuttered when the ghost inside her clawed awake. They had not felt the power thrumming beneath her skin like a caged storm.
If anything, they should have feared her too much to speak her name. If Drakoria knew about her surviving the blood moon that meant that Kaelie was aware also.
Speaking of Kaelia, why did I sense her presence just in the corridors?
I was damn sure she was lingering near the outer corridors, pretending not to listen while her ears caught every whisper. She had always been good at that.
I was waiting for her to approach me directly this time but she didn't, which told me everything.
She was planting seeds.
“Can you imagine this?” she murmured to a pair of guards when she thought I couldn't see her, “A wolf survives the blood moon and your supposed king shields her. I wonder how long before the fire bends for her too.”
I stepped into the corridor quickly before the conversation could continue.
The guards dropped to one knee the moment they saw me.
Kaelia straightened slowly, her expression was smooth but her eyes remained sharp as ever.
“You tread dangerously close to treason,” I said to her, gritting my teeth.
“I speak only of concern for the kingdom,” she answered. “Our people are afraid.”
“They should be,” I replied. “But not afraid of Seraphine. I have assured them time and time again that she means no harm to them.”
Kaelia arched her brow, she paused for a moment, for the first time since her return, uncertainty flickered across her face.
“You would defend her even now?” she asked. “After the omens? After the blood moon?”
I moved closer until she could feel the heat rolling off me.
“I will not discuss Seraphine with you again,” I said. “Especially not in warnings disguised as care.”
Her jaw tightened. “You are being manipulated,” she said quietly. “Just as you were before.”
The memory struck like a blade, but I did not deny it. Instead, I leaned close enough that only she could hear me.
“If you speak her name with malice one more time,” I said, “you will learn how quickly affection turns to ash.”
Kaelia stepped back away from me.
I could see her eyes burning with fury.
“As you wish, my king,” she said. “But when the world burns, do not say you were not warned.”
She turned and left, her wings snapping open with restrained rage.
I stood there long after she was gone, rethinking my decisions.
I did not know whether to tell Seraphine the truth. That her blood carried the end of gods and that her existence threatened every balance holding this world together.
If I told her that, she might break, and if I did not, she might become everything the prophecy promised.