⚔️ Chapter 3 – Ashes in the Garden (Kael's POV)
The garden behind the chapel was a ruin of roses and broken promises.
Kael moved through it like smoke, one hand on the hilt of his blade, the other gently guiding Seris by the small of her back. Every instinct in him screamed to run faster. But Seris… she walked like a queen already—defiant, calm, fire in her spine even as her world collapsed behind her.
The woman he loved had just declared war.
And now, she was his to protect.
They passed under crumbling trellises and thorn-covered arches, past the marble statue of the goddess Elyra, cracked at the throat. It was here—in the shadows of forgotten prayers—that he stopped.
"We can't go to the stables," he said. "They'll be watching the exits by now."
Seris didn't hesitate. "Then we don't go to the stables."
Gods, she made his blood hum.
He tilted his head, scanning the tree line. "The west tunnels?"
"Collapsed during last winter's quake."
Kael cursed softly. "Then we take the servants' catacombs. There's a way through the crypt—"
A sound behind them.
He spun, blade half-drawn.
But it was only a gardener. Or what looked like one. A boy no older than fifteen, eyes wide, holding a rusted rake like a sword.
"Don't scream," Kael said quietly.
"I— I'm not," the boy stammered, eyes locked on Seris. "You… you really said no."
Seris's voice was gentle. "What's your name?"
"Finn," he whispered. "My sister… she died last spring. In the mines. Prince Alric said it was her fault. But it wasn't. She was just… tired."
Kael lowered his sword.
Seris stepped forward and touched the boy's arm. "We're going to change things, Finn. Go. Now."
Finn nodded and fled into the hedges.
Kael turned to her, voice harder. "You can't talk to every wounded soul we pass. They'll use it against you."
She faced him. "If I don't speak to them, why are we running?"
That stopped him. For a heartbeat, he saw it again—that light inside her that refused to dim.
He remembered the first time he saw her, three years ago, in that same garden. A noble daughter who knelt to help a servant girl replant a rose bush. No one had seen her but him. And from that day forward, he had watched. Guarded. Burned.
Even now, after all the blood, the secrets, the deaths ordered by her father's court… she still glowed.
And he would destroy anyone who tried to extinguish her.
"Kael," she said softly. "We have to go."
He nodded and led her through the overgrown arch to a hidden stone stair. As they descended into the darkness beneath the palace, he whispered the words that had haunted his dreams:
"You should have run."
"And leave you alone with my crown?" she said.
Then she smiled, and in the dark, it looked like a promise.
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🔥 End of Chapter 3