Chapter 188 CHAPTER 188
When Liam opened the portal, the silver glow folded around them like mist dissolving into the night. The garden of Mooncrest slowly took shape beneath their feet as the portal closed behind them, the air shifting from the quiet, luminous calm of the Silver City to the colder, heavier atmosphere of the palace grounds. For a moment Lisa simply stood there, adjusting to the familiar scent of stone, trees, and the faint burn of torches along the palace walls.
Something immediately felt wrong.
The garden itself was quiet, but beyond it, movement filled the courtyard. Guards were walking quickly across the paths, their armor catching the light from the lanterns as servants and palace attendants gathered in uneasy clusters near the main building. Their voices were hushed, tense, the kind of whispers that spread through a palace when something terrible had happened.
Lisa’s stomach tightened.
Her first thought was Ethan.
She turned quickly toward Liam, her voice edged with worry. “Something’s wrong.”
Liam had already sensed it. His eyes moved across the courtyard, reading the tension the way a soldier reads a battlefield. His posture straightened instinctively, every sense alert.
Before either of them could move further, someone hurried toward them across the garden path.
“Lisa!”
Isabel’s voice broke through the tension as she rushed across the courtyard toward them. Her breathing was slightly uneven from hurrying, but when she reached them, the relief on her face was clear.
Lisa stepped forward immediately. “Is Ethan alright?”
Isabel nodded quickly, lifting a reassuring hand. “He’s fine. Nothing happened to him.”
Lisa exhaled slowly, the tight knot in her chest loosening just enough for her to breathe again.
“Then what happened?” Liam asked, his voice calm but focused.
Isabel glanced briefly toward the palace doors before lowering her voice. “It’s about one of the elders.”
Lisa frowned slightly. “The Silverpine elders?”
Isabel shook her head.
“No. One of Mooncrest’s elders.”
She hesitated before finishing the thought. “Vaughn.”
Liam and Lisa exchanged a brief look.
“What about him?” Liam asked.
Isabel folded her arms lightly, still processing the shock herself. “Yesterday Ethan discovered Vaughn had been secretly meeting someone who was banned from Mooncrest years ago. Someone dangerous. Someone who was exiled by the former king.”
Lisa’s brows pulled together in confusion. “Exiled?”
Isabel nodded.
“Yes. Ethan had him detained last night because the evidence pointed to treason. The council was supposed to question him this morning.”
Lisa waited, sensing the rest of the story had not yet been said.
“But when the guards went to bring him in,” Isabel continued quietly, “they found him in his cell.”
She paused, the words still feeling strange even as she said them.
“He hanged himself.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
Lisa blinked slowly. “Vaughn?”
Even saying his name with the word suicide beside it sounded wrong.
“He doesn’t seem like someone who would do that,” she said quietly.
“No one believes it,” Isabel admitted. “The whole palace is shaken.”
Liam’s expression had changed slightly as he processed the information.
“Where is Ethan?” he asked.
“In the council chambers,” Isabel said. “He’s been questioning the guards since morning.”
Liam nodded once.
“I’ll find him.”
Without another word he headed toward the palace entrance, leaving Lisa and Isabel standing in the courtyard.
Lisa watched him disappear through the doors before turning back to Isabel, the worry returning to her face. “I’m concerned about Ethan,” she admitted softly. “After everything he’s already been through… this is a lot.”
Isabel leaned lightly against the stone railing beside her.
“I know.”
Lisa lowered her gaze briefly.
“First he discovers the truth about our parents. Then he realizes he can’t trust the council the way he thought he could. And now one of those elders turns out to be a traitor.”
She shook her head slowly.
“That would break anyone.”
Isabel studied her for a moment before answering gently. “Ethan is stronger than people realize.”
Lisa gave a small, uncertain smile.
“I hope so.”
“He also has people who care about him,” Isabel added quietly. “People who won’t let him face things alone.”
Inside the palace, Liam found Ethan standing with two guards near the council chamber doors. Papers and reports were spread across the large wooden table behind them, and the tension in Ethan’s shoulders made it clear the investigation had not been simple.
When Ethan saw Liam enter, something in his expression softened.
“I’m glad you’re back,” he said honestly. “This situation has been difficult without you.”
Liam approached him calmly. “You should have called me back sooner. You shouldn’t have to carry the weight of being king and the responsibilities of a commander at the same time.”
Ethan gave a tired half-smile.
“What you were doing with Lisa was more important,” he said quietly. “She needed you more than I did.”
Liam studied him for a moment before nodding slightly.
Then his attention shifted.
“I want to see the cell.”
Ethan understood immediately what he meant. Without another word he gestured for Liam to follow him.
They left the main palace building and crossed the inner courtyard toward a separate stone structure built along the outer wall of the castle grounds. The building was older than the palace itself, its walls thicker and its windows narrow, designed less for comfort and more for containment.
Mooncrest’s holding cells were kept there, away from the royal chambers.
Two guards opened the iron door as Ethan and Liam approached, allowing them to enter the dim stone interior.
The air inside was colder.
Ethan led him down the short corridor and opened the door to Vaughn’s cell.
The room itself was simple and bare: a narrow bed against the wall, a small wooden table near the corner, and a heavy beam across the ceiling where the fabric of Vaughn’s robe had been used to create the noose.
Liam stepped inside slowly.
Something about the room felt wrong.
He closed his eyes briefly.
Ethan watched him. “What is it?”
Liam turned toward the guards standing by the door.
“Leave us.”
The guards hesitated only long enough to glance at Ethan.
Ethan nodded.
“Go.”
When the door closed behind them, the cell fell silent.
Liam moved toward the center of the room and slowly lifted his hand, his eyes closing again as he reached outward with a kind of focus Ethan had never seen before.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the air in the room began to ripple.
It curved outward, forming a faint sphere of shimmering light around them, like a transparent bubble bending the space inside it.
Within the sphere, the air began to shift.
Shapes appeared.
Ethan’s breath caught as the faint image of the cell began to replay itself from the previous night.
Two guards entered.
Vaughn sat on the edge of the bed.
One guard stepped closer.
They watched in silence as the man leaned down toward Vaughn and began speaking. His mouth moved clearly, but no sound came through the strange echo of time surrounding them.
The guard bent closer.
He whispered something into Vaughn’s ear.
Vaughn’s reaction was immediate.
Shock washed across his face.
Then something else followed - not fear, but a deep, terrible resignation.
Slowly, deliberately, Vaughn stood.
He removed his robe, tied it around the ceiling beam, and stepped from the bed.
The image faded.
The sphere of magic dissolved.
The cell returned to its quiet stillness.
Ethan stared at the empty beam for a long moment before turning slowly toward Liam.
“How did you do that?”
Liam lowered his hand.
“An elder in the Silver City showed me,” he said quietly. “He said my magic can reach across balance… even through time.”
Ethan exhaled slowly.
“It is amazing.”
“It is.” Liam responded, “But that’s not important at this moment.”
Liam’s eyes returned to the spot where Vaughn had died.
Ethan followed his gaze. His jaw tightened.
“I thought Vaughn had been murdered.”
He shook his head slowly.
“But what we just saw is worse.”
Liam nodded.
“Much worse. What did the guard tell him to make him want to willingly commit suicide? We need to find out what the conversation here was.”
Ethan turned toward the door, anger already rising in his voice.
“I’ll have that guard arrested immediately.”
“Wait,” Liam said calmly.
Ethan stopped.
“He doesn’t know what we know,” Liam continued. “If we arrest him now, whoever he works for will disappear before we can reach them.”
Ethan studied him carefully.
“You want to watch him.”
“Yes.”
Liam’s voice remained steady.
“Let him believe his secret is safe. Whoever sent him will contact him again.”
Ethan nodded slowly.
“And when they do?”
Liam’s eyes hardened.
“Then we’ll find the real enemy.”
Outside the prison building, the palace remained restless in the night, its quiet corridors hiding more secrets than anyone yet understood.
And somewhere within its walls, a traitor still walked freely.