When Maliah, Magnus' mother, revealed the truth, her words cut through him like a blade cloaked in calmness. She told him that his grandfather had been keeping tabs on Rowan for a long time now—
watching him from the shadows, prying into details Magnus himself had never dared to imagine.
She also mockingly explained how Rowan had joined the knighthood in Evadene under a false name, concealing his real identity as a prince in Vlandia as if burying his past beneath layers of secrecy. To Magnus' shock, she even knew the lengths Rowan had gone to like chopping off his black hair, shearing it close and dyeing it silver so that not even a fleeting glance could betray who he truly was.
Magnus' chest constricted as her words settled in.
On the outside, he stood firm with posture disciplined like every line of his body was screaming composure and nobility—
as though he were carved from stone.
But inside, panic erupted like wildfire.
