Chapter 70 Theron
THERON
I stare at the King, my mind struggling to catch up with what my body already seems to understand.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I growl, yanking one hand free on instinct, though I don’t step back. I can’t. Something in me won’t let me.
“Don’t you see?” he says, his voice thick with emotion. “You’ve returned to me. You’re my grandson—the Lost Prince!”
For a heartbeat, everything goes still…then the Court erupts.
Cheers explode around us, voices rising in a thunderous wave as people begin clapping, shouting, chanting. The sound crashes over me, disorienting and overwhelming.
“The Lost Prince returns! The Lost Prince returns!”
I feel like I’ve been hit in the head with a hammer.
This isn’t real—it can’t be. I’m just a blacksmith. I grew up in a village where the biggest excitement was a good harvest or a bad storm. I’ve never set foot in a place like this before today.
This is a mistake. It has to be. And yet…
My gaze drops to my hands and I see they’re still glowing.
The same fire that runs through the King burns in me—bright and undeniable. I can feel my Drake pressing forward, reaching for the old King’s Drake—not in challenge, not in dominance, but in something else…recognition…Acknowledgment.
“Kin,” I hear him say, and that’s what really seals it for me. This must be right—must be true. My Drake wouldn’t acknowledge another for no reason. He isn’t human—he can’t be fooled.
My thoughts tangle, slipping through my fingers as I try to make sense of it. I open my mouth to speak again, to demand some kind of explanation—
And then the world explodes.