Chapter 26
Sia
The first time Sia noticed something was different was purely by accident.
Lucas was off meeting with advisors over some conflict, and Sia had wandered to the girls’ room after spending time in her sanctuary. As she bent to kiss Stella’s forehead, the little girl’s skin burned hot beneath her lips.
“Oh no, little one. You’re getting sick.” She went and got the tonic to break the fever. “I hope the others don’t catch whatever it is.”
It took a bit of coaxing to get Stella to wake up. When she opened her eyes, they were glazed and dark. Stella took the tonic while Sia murmured soft reassurances and smoothed damp curls from her forehead.
Sia sat with her for a bit after Stella went back to sleep, surprised that Stella slept so peacefully while she was burning up. She checked the other girls before she headed to her room, but their skin was cool to the touch.
As a precaution, she left a note for the chef to prepare chicken soup. She had a feeling that the next few days were going to be rough around the castle.
But when Stella charged into her room at dawn the fever was gone. Not diminished. Not reduced. Just gone.
Stella was bright-eyed and hungry as she tugged at the curtains to let in the sunlight. Her cheerfulness and lack of so much as a cough left Sia wondering how a child could burn like a fire and be perfectly well a few hours later.
Celeste was also different in subtler, stranger ways.
At dance class the following week, Sia had lingered near the mirrored wall and watched Celeste’s reflection rather than the instructor, because there was something about the way Celeste held herself that drew her attention and refused to release it.
She was only eleven, all long limbs and determined chin, yet when the other children faltered in their steps, it was Celeste who corrected them.
She wasn’t mean about it, but she had a natural authority that seemed to ripple outward from her like a quiet command.
“No, like this,” Celeste had said and demonstrated the turn with a sharp precision that made even the teacher blink in surprise. “Again.”
And they did.
Without complaint, without mockery, and without the usual chaos of kids her age that often happened if they felt they were being bossed around. Instead, they simply obeyed.
“Natural leader, that one!” The instructor laughed it off and Sia forced herself to smile, but she knew there was something off about the whole situation.
Then there was Luna.
Luna who came padding up to her at breakfast with her hair mussed and eyes wide as she whispered with breathless amazement about the sky. “Mama Sia,” she had said and climbed into Sia’s lap, “I can fly in my dreams. Not like falling. Like…like I have wings.”
Sia had brushed her fingers through Luna’s hair and swallowed hard. “What do you see up there in the sky?” Sia had asked softly.
“Everything,” Luna replied, with a certainty that felt older than her years. “And it’s all mine to protect.”
Sia had closed her eyes at that and pulled her into a hug and held her close. She wasn’t sure what the statistics were of all three girls having dragon tendencies, but she was fairly certain that they did and would continue exhibiting the traits as they grew up.
She sought Lucas one evening after the girls had been tucked into their beds and found him in his study surrounded by maps and papers.
The low light threw sharp angles across his face as he leaned over a large boundary map that marked the borders of Crystafalls.
His jaw was tight and his eyes reflected the weight of a kingdom’s worry.
“Lucas,” she began gently and closed the door behind her.
He looked up at once, and the warmth in his gaze for her was immediate and real, yet it was threaded through with distraction.
“They’re showing signs,” she said without waiting. “It’s subtle, but it’s there. Stella’s fever wasn’t ordinary. Celeste commands without trying. Luna dreams of flight as though she remembers it.”
“They are children,” he replied. “Gifted children, perhaps. Strong-willed. Imaginative.”
His expression darkened with concern that seemed directed elsewhere. “There are more pressing matters,” he said, rubbing a hand over his face before glancing back at the map. “I can’t divide my focus right now.”
It was so unlike him to not make the girls his priority. She leaned over him. “What’s going on? You’ve barely said anything to me lately, and I never see you anymore.”
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face again. “I didn’t want to make you worry.”
“Oh, because that will make me just carry on.” She sat in the chair opposite him. “Tell me. What’s going on?”
He gave her the brief rundown of the unexpected visit. “And now, I don’t know what he’ll do.”
The name settled heavily between them.
Voilear.
Sia had heard it spoken in lowered voices by advisors and messengers as she moved around the castle, but she hadn’t put any weight behind the name.
“So, he’s another dragon that thinks he can just woosh in here and take over?”
Lucas nodded. “Basically. It doesn’t help that it’s the way land has been conquered for centuries.
I just never thought I’d have to deal with it in my lifetime.
” He leaned over and kissed her. “And that’s why I’m distracted.
The girls are the most important thing, you know that.
But keeping them in their home is just as important at the moment. ”
She kissed him back. “I miss you, but I understand.”
“I promise as soon as this scum is sent packing, I’ll be right at your side as we figure out my little dragon-lings. It shouldn’t be long.”
Waiting did not sit well with her.
So she sought Elder Aldrek instead. Lucas trusted him the most and it was something she could inquire about on her own.
She found him in the old stone hall where sunlight filtered through narrow windows and dust motes drifted lazily in the air.
His posture was as straight and unyielding as the carved pillars behind him even though his welcome was warm and inviting.
She told him everything. Every suspicion that she had.
He listened without interruption, his lined face giving nothing away, and when she finished he folded his hands within his sleeves and regarded her with a steadiness that felt less comforting than it ought to have been.
“The blood may stir,” he conceded at last, his voice low and firm, “but the heir must be male.”
Sia blinked. “Must?”
“It has always been so.”
His certainty pressed against her like a closed door. Always, as though history was the must of the future. As though traditions were laws of nature rather than choice.
She left him with frustration simmering beneath her calm exterior, because she had not asked about heirs or succession, not really, but about their girls and whether the fire within them might one day blaze beyond control, and instead she had been handed nothing wrapped in inevitability.
Sia was still lost in her thoughts when she went to pick Celeste up from dance class. The afternoon ran through her mind and she almost ran into a stranger standing outside the studio.
She stopped just in time. “Oh, I am so sorry. I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going.” She sidestepped to go around him as she glanced at her watch.
He stood just beyond the entrance and leaned casually against the wall as if he had been there for some time.
He straightened and smiled. “Lady Sia,” he said smoothly, as though they were acquaintances reunited after a pleasant absence.
She stopped short and looked at him again. His expression was one of idle patience that sharpened the moment his eyes met hers. She didn’t recognize him at all and yet he spoke her name with easy familiarity.
“I’m sorry,” she replied carefully, every instinct throwing up a red flag at once. “Have we met?”
“Not properly.”
The words were harmless enough, but the way he said them sent a cold ripple down her spine that had nothing to do with the brisk air. As music drifted faintly from inside the studio, Sia became acutely aware of how alone she was with this stranger.
Walking around Crystafalls had never been an issue. Most of the residents were highly respectful of the royals and enjoyed seeing them live as normal people. But now, she suddenly wondered just how smart it was to continue doing so.
There was something in his gaze that felt assessing rather than admiring, as if he were studying her for weaknesses and memorizing reactions.
His posture remained relaxed, but the red flags in her mind started to flap more urgently.
His scraggly moustache twitched and he rubbed a thin scar along his jaw.
Trouble, every instinct whispered.
“You seem to know me,” she said, keeping her tone even while her pulse quickened. “Is your child in the dance class?”
“One makes it a point to know the important figures in a kingdom,” he answered lightly while ignoring her question.
Important. The word unsettled her more than it should have.
“And why is that?”
“We don’t need to discuss that right now.”
Her temper flared at his brush off. “You’ll be wise to remember that I’m Queen Sia, not Lady.”
Before he could respond, Celeste burst through the doors, flushed and smiling. “You’re late.”
The stranger’s eyes flicked briefly to the girl before they returned to Sia with a look she could not decipher but did not trust.
“Until next time,” he said, inclining his head.
As he walked away, unhurried and confident, Sia felt the chill linger long after his figure disappeared around the corner. She grabbed Celeste and pulled her close.
“Come on. We need to get home.” To her relief, Celeste didn’t resist or ask a million questions.
Sia stayed aware of her surroundings until they were safely within the castle gates. Something deep within her recognized the scent of danger and tightened its grip around her heart.