“Bring her inside.”
Adrian’s voice was calm. Too calm for someone who had just seen the symbol of a family that should have gone extinct.
Two soldiers approached Elara.
“His Majesty wishes to speak with you.”
Elara looked at them, then back at Adrian, who stood beneath the castle steps.
“Now?”
“Now.”
Elara sighed.
She had spent two days traveling just to reach Aveloria. Her shoes were wet, her hair was a mess, and her body felt exhausted.
The last thing she needed right now was to face a king.
But for some reason, that man’s gaze made it difficult for her to refuse.
Elara climbed the steps. The closer she got to Adrian, the stranger the feeling in her chest became. Warm, familiar, and slightly frightening.
When she stood directly before him, Elara had to tilt her head back. Adrian was much taller than she was.
“Your name is Elara Vale?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you get that pendant?”
Elara touched the object hanging around her neck. “It belonged to my mother.”
“Who was your mother?”
Elara fell silent. The truth was, she didn’t know. Her mother had died when she was young. The only things left behind were that pendant and a letter she had kept for years.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian’s brows drew together slightly. “You don’t know who your mother was?”
“She died when I was little.”
“And your father?”
“I don’t know that either.”
Her answer made several soldiers exchange glances.
Adrian, on the other hand, studied her even more closely. “Why did you come to Aveloria?”
Elara slipped a hand into her coat pocket. She pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper.
“I found this after my grandmother died.”
Adrian took it. His eyes moved over the faded handwriting. There was only one sentence.
‘If you ever want to know who you are, go to Aveloria and meet its king.’
Adrian was silent for quite some time.
“Who wrote this?”
“My grandmother.”
“And she told you to come to me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elara shrugged. “If I knew, I wouldn’t have come all this way.”
For the first time, one corner of Adrian’s mouth twitched. Almost like a smile. But it vanished so quickly that Elara wasn’t sure she had really seen it.
“You’re bold.”
“I’m just answering your questions.”
“In front of the king.”
“I don’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong.”
Adrian stared at her. This woman was strange.
Most people would tremble just from standing before him. But Elara stood there with a tired, slightly annoyed expression, as though Adrian were an ordinary man wasting her time.
Then pain suddenly stabbed through his chest.
Adrian fell silent. His hand clenched into a fist. The black symbol on his wrist began to glow. The curse.
Elara noticed the change. “Your Majesty?”
“Don’t come any closer.” Adrian’s voice had turned sharp.
Elara stopped. “Why?”
“Don’t.”
But it was too late. Elara’s one step had already brought them closer together.
A golden light appeared in Elara’s palm. At the same time, the black symbol on Adrian’s hand dimmed. The pain disappeared.
Adrian stared at his hand. Then he looked at Elara.
Impossible.
For three years, not a single person had been able to stop the curse.
Not a sorcerer, not a healer, not an ancient potion, not even a royal ritual. Yet this woman had only needed to stand near him.
“Take her to the dungeon.”
Elara immediately frowned. “What?”
“He didn’t mean her,” one of the soldiers hurriedly explained.
Adrian shot him a sharp look. “I meant, take her to the royal library.”
Elara let out a relieved breath. “Thank goodness.”
Adrian walked past her. But after a few steps, he stopped.
“Elara.”
She turned around. “Yes?”
“Starting tonight, you’ll stay in the castle.”
Elara’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“I can’t stay here.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
Elara glared irritably at the king’s back. “Then I’ll go home.”
Adrian slowly turned around. His gaze made the entire room fall silent again.
“You have nowhere to go home to.”
Elara fell silent. His words struck something she had spent all this time trying to ignore.
Adrian continued, “And if you leave the castle now, you may never find out who you are.”
Elara bit her lip. She hated that he was right. In the end, she followed Adrian.
The royal library turned out to be far larger than Elara had imagined.
Bookshelves covered the walls all the way to the ceiling. Some of them even looked hundreds of years old.
Adrian stood before a large table. Several old books had already been laid out on it.
Elara stepped up beside him to look, and only then realized how little space the table left between them.
He smelled of rain and cold cedar and something faintly like smoke, the scent of a man who had stood too long at a window in a storm. His sleeve brushed her shoulder. Neither of them moved away.
Elara told herself it was exhaustion that made her pulse unsteady. Two days on the road, twenty-four years of never once standing inside a palace, and now a king close enough that she could see the drop of rain still caught at his temple.
Adrian glanced down at her. For a heartbeat, his gaze lingered on her mouth, then returned to the books as though nothing had happened.
Something had.
She felt it in the way the air between them seemed warmer than the rest of the room.
“Open to the last page.”
Elara picked up the first book. She turned page after page, then stopped. An image left her transfixed.
A woman stood beside a man wearing a crown. The woman’s face...
Elara leaned closer.
It was almost the same as hers—not merely similar. Nearly identical.
“That’s...”
Adrian didn’t answer.
“Who is she?”
“Queen Seraphine.”
“Why does she look like me?”
Adrian looked at her. “Because her sister was your ancestor.”
Elara took a step back. “That’s impossible.”
“She was the last woman from House Vale to ever live in this palace.”
Elara looked at the image again. There was something even stranger. Ancient writing appeared beneath the image.
Adrian translated it in a low voice.
“When Vale blood returns to the crown, the curse will find its way to an end.”
Elara raised her head. “So I can heal your curse?”
Adrian remained silent. Elara immediately understood his answer.
“That’s why you’re making me stay here.”
“For the time being.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“Be my guest.”
Elara narrowed her eyes. “Really?”
“Really.”
“You won’t hold me here?”
“No.”
Elara sighed in relief. But before she could turn away, Adrian said,
“I suggest you read the next page.”
Elara stopped. She opened the page. Her expression changed immediately. The writing there was much longer. And at the bottom was a sentence that made her blood run cold.
The curse will not break merely because Vale blood has returned.
It will break when the king falls in love with the woman whose blood once destroyed his kingdom.
Elara read the sentence twice. Then she slowly looked at Adrian.
“This means...”
“Yes.”
Adrian stepped closer. His gaze was no longer as cold as before.
“According to the prophecy, I have to fall in love with you.”
Elara’s heart pounded.
“And if you don’t?”
Adrian looked at the black symbol on his hand. “Then the curse will remain.”
Elara swallowed. “And you believe that prophecy?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow. Elara closed the book.
“Because I don’t believe it either.”
For the first time, Adrian truly smiled faintly.
“Unfortunately, Elara...”
He took the book from Elara’s hands.
“My body seems to be starting to believe it.”
Elara stared at him in confusion. Adrian showed her his hand. The curse symbol, which was usually black, now had a single thin golden line running through it. Exactly like the light that had appeared in Elara’s hand.
And outside the royal library, the royal bells began ringing again. This time, not three times, but seven.
The guards outside began shouting. Someone ran toward the library.
“Your Majesty!”
Adrian turned around. “What is it?”
The soldier dropped to one knee, his face pale.
“The seal on the tomb of House Vale...”
He drew a breath. “It’s been opened.”
Elara froze. Adrian looked at her.
And for the first time since his curse began, he felt something far more terrifying than losing the throne.
Fear. Because if the tomb of House Vale had been opened... it meant someone inside had just awakened.