Chapter 28 #2
His gaze moves to the mark over my heart.
"But years ago, I found another record inside the Starling vault."
"The book you hid," I say.
His expression tightens. "Yes."
"You knew more than Mother." I say.
"Not enough." He shakes his head.
"Enough to fear me." I state. He doesn't deny it.
Seren takes a step closer. Her transparent shoes make no sound against the stone. "Tell her the rest."
My father looks at her. "You should."
Seren shakes her head violently. "She'll never believe me."
"I believe verifiable information."I say. The words stop her. She looks at me as though searching for the smallest trace of softness. There is none available. "Speak," I say.
Her face crumples. Valerius's anger pulses through the bond. I feel his desire to refuse her voice entirely. To protect me from every explanation that might complicate betrayal but this is why the Ancient Masters are sending Remnants. Seren knows something. Therefore she speaks.
"I was recruited before the Eternal Flame Gathering," she says.
"We know." Valerius says.
"Voss approached my mother first. The Ashwick family owed the council an old blood debt. She told us the debt would be forgiven if I watched you."
"Why me?" I ask.
"She said the dean's powerless daughter might be carrying something sealed." Seren answers me.
"And you agreed." I say.
Seren's throat works around a sob she no longer physically needs. "My mother was dying." No one speaks. "She had a Veil sickness," Seren continues. "Her magic was decaying inside her. Every time she healed someone, part of her soul came loose. Voss promised the Ancient Masters could stop it."
"Did they?" I ask.
Seren lowers her head. "No." The answer is irrelevant to her betrayal. I wait. She forces herself onward. "At first, I only reported strange magical reactions. The flames bending. The relics noticing you. Your mark after the Gathering."
Valerius's Shadowflame climbs his arm. "You reported the mark?"
Seren flinches. "Yes."
His grip around my hand becomes painful. I don't tell him to loosen it. "And the shattered mirrors?" I ask.
Her silence answers.
"The shadow entering my room?" I ask.
"No." Her head snaps up. "I swear. I didn't know they could send Remnants. I didn't know what Voss was until the glasshouse."
"But you continued." I state.
Tears slide down her translucent cheeks. "Yes."
"Why?" I ask.
"Because by then they knew I had lied to them."
I tilt my head. Seren steps closer. "I stopped giving them everything after the Flame chose you. I hid the nights Valerius stayed. I hid what Thorne said about fated souls. I told Voss the cracked mirrors were caused by Shadowflame. I tried to make her believe you were weaker than you were."
Valerius's voice is cold. "You still gave her enough."
"I know." She looks down.
"You cast the severance spell." Valerius says with anger.
The black mark around her throat darkens. Seren presses a ghostly hand against it. "They told me it was a restraint. Something to slow the bond long enough to move Valentina away from the gate."
"You believed that?" Valerius asks.
"No." The honesty silences him. Seren looks at me. "I knew what it was."
The locked place inside my chest shifts. A memory. Seren holding me. Seren laughing. Seren's magic wrapping around the bond. The locked door tightens.
"Then your excuses have limited value," I say.
Her spirit flickers. "I know."
"Why are you holding the dead here?" I ask.
Seren wipes tears she can't stop. "Because Voss was wrong about one thing."
My father turns toward the Crossing River again. Seren follows his gaze. "The Ancient Masters didn't send Remnants into the foundations only to attack students."
"They're coming for the spirits," I say.
"Yes." She nods.
"Because the dead remember how the first Starborne fell." I say.
Seren's eyes meet mine. "No." The black candles tremble. "They remember how she survived."
A sound rises from the spirits, hundreds of dead people inhaling at once. The dark river begins to move, slow ripples spread across its surface.
Luc takes another step back. "That river has never moved without a crossing."
My father says, "This is not a crossing."
The spirits nearest the water begin kneeling, one by one, students, guards, professors. The old dead, the newly lost. Their knees touch the white floor, the motion spreads through the Hall. A wave of bodies lowering before me.
Valerius moves in front of me immediately. "No." His voice cracks across the chamber.
The dead continue kneeling, to me. Seren lowers herself last. My father remains standing, he looks at me with sorrow. "They do not kneel because you are their queen."
The sovereign mark over my heart pulses. "Then why?"
"Because they recognize the prison." My father says. The words enter me slowly.
Valerius's face hardens. "What prison?"
My father looks at the colourless mark over my heart. "The sovereign heart."
The silent place inside me contracts. Luc whispers, "No."
Seren bows her head. My father continues. "The first Starborne queen was named Aurelia."
The name ignites every candle, black flames become white-gold, the river surges. A woman's face appears beneath the dark surface, silver-gold eyes, a crown of flame. The same woman from the teaching basin, the same queen who warned us. The last queen they burned.
Her eyes open beneath the water. I stare. The reflection stares back, then smiles. My mother believed the echo was a memory. Thorne believed it was a projection. We were wrong.
"She lied," Valerius whispers. The woman beneath the water mouths a word. Not yet audible.
My father's voice shakes. "Aurelia's body burned during the purge but before the flames consumed her, she divided her sovereign heart." The mark beneath my skin tightens painfully. "One half remained with her spirit," he says. "The other was placed inside her bloodline."
"Passed through generations," Luc murmurs.
Alaric nods. "Hidden. Sealed. Waiting for a body powerful enough to carry it."
Valerius steps closer to me. His expression has changed. "No."
My father's eyes fill. "Valentina was not born with ordinary Starfire." The dead bow lower. "She was born with Aurelia's severed heart." Silence breaks across the Hall.
The locked place inside me trembles. A foreign heartbeat answers beneath my own, once, twice, slow and ancient.
Valerius's hand flies to the mark over my chest without touching it. "Get it out."
My father's face folds. "It cannot simply be removed."
"Everything can be removed." Valerius says.
"Not without killing her." My father says.
Shadowflame explodes along Valerius's shoulders. "I don't accept that."
The woman beneath the river smiles wider. The Hall darkens around her. Seren looks up from her knees. "That's what the coronation was."
My gaze moves to her. "The battle in the archive?"
"The sovereign key didn't only restore your power," she says. "It restored Aurelia's half of the heart inside you."
The Ancient Master's words return. 'So the sovereign heart is restored.' They never wanted to kill me. They wanted to complete something.
"The first battle was a coronation," I repeat her words..
Seren nods. "But not yours."
Valerius understands first. I feel it through the bond. Horror. "They crowned her," he says. His eyes lock on the dark river. "Inside Valentina."
Every candle goes out. For one second, the Hall is completely dark, then a voice speaks from my chest... Not through the walls... Not through the river... Through me.
"At last." The word came from my mouth, but I didn't say it.
Valerius releases my hand as if burned. Luc's magic flares. My father closes his eyes. Seren sobs. My body goes still. Not by choice. The colourless mark over my heart opens like an eye. White-gold light floods the Hall. Every kneeling spirit screams.
Valerius catches my shoulders. "Valentina."
I look at him. I try to answer. My mouth smiles but I didn't choose to. The expression feels wrong on my face.
Valerius's hands tighten. "Fight her."
The sovereign heart pulses. "You have his eyes."
The voice is mine and not mine. Valerius freezes. The spirit beneath the mark is looking at him, not me. Aurelia recognizes Shadowbound blood.
His face empties. "Get out of her."
My mouth laughs softly. The sound echoes through every kneeling spirit. "You still give orders as if your line was not created to obey mine."
Shadowflame erupts. Valerius's hands burn around my shoulders, but the fire doesn't harm me. It bends toward the sovereign mark as if forced to kneel.
His expression twists. "No."
He drags the flame back through pure will. The effort shakes him. My father steps toward us. "Aurelia."
My head turns. Again, not by choice. The ancient presence inside me looks at him through my eyes. "The coward." Alaric flinches. "You feared the vessel," Aurelia says through me. "Yet you delivered her to the throne."
"I didn't know." My father shakes his head.
"You knew enough to hide the record." Aurelia says.
My father's face breaks. The truth lands. His secrecy helped this happen. He didn't understand fully, but fear made him conceal the one warning that might have changed everything.
Valerius steps between my father and me. "Stop using her voice."
My mouth curves. "You love this one."
The locked girl inside me screams. The sound doesn't escape. Aurelia feels it. The smile disappears. For the first time, her control falters.
Valerius feels me. His eyes widen. "Valentina?"
Mine. The bond catches it. He moves instantly.
His forehead presses against mine, hands holding my face as if he can anchor me inside my own body.
"I'm here." Aurelia's presence recoils. The sovereign mark burns.
My knees buckle. Valerius catches me. The Hall spins between black river and kneeling dead.
"Stay with me," he whispers. "Don't let her close you away again."
I reach for him. Inside, not with my hand, with the part of me trapped behind the sovereign heart.