The king stood. “This is the Relic of Sovereigns, forged in the days before the crown existed, passed only to those chosen by the magic that created our kingdom. It will not stir for impostors.” He withdrew a key from beneath his collar and unlocked the case, using much more pomp and effort than I’d employed the night before. “Touch it,” he commanded.
My pulse quickened. I’d only glimpsed a single shard taken from this crown last night before everything had gone wrong—but now, in the full glow of torchlight, it seemed almost alive. Not regal. Not beautiful. But dangerous.
I hesitated, my pulse quickening. Not from fear, but anticipation to heed the enchantment’s call that made my skin hum.
Fingers trembling, I slowly reached out and placed my hand against the relic. The moment my skin brushed the metal, the relic flared with light beneath my palm, warmth flooding through me with memory—the kind I’d always been able to sense in objects I touched…only stronger, more ancient. I’d felt strong emotions through objects before, but nothing like what overwhelmed me this time.
Visions cascaded through me: kings crowned in shadowed halls, queens whispering vows by firelight, a child held aloft as cheers echoed in a forgotten tongue. There were battles, coronations, oaths, betrayals. The rise and fall of dynasties.
And then, one image lingered—the same man I had captured glimpses of the first time the relic spoke to me, bearing a sense of familiarity I’d felt in the strange dreams that had trapped me while I slept. I tore my hand away, heart pounding, stumbling slightly as I fought to regain my balance. The relic pulsed once more, then fell still.
The silence in the throne room returned, but it was different now—heavier and uncertain. “That should not have happened,” the advisor whispered, his face pale.
The queen’s expression was unreadable. “Only a true heir could have awakened it.”
I swallowed hard, forcing my breathing to slow. My strange ability had always been a quiet trick, a whisper of stories objects wanted to tell. But what I’d just witnessed had been a storm that went beyond what my powers had ever shown me.
The king nodded slowly, but his eyes were far from satisfied. “The test was only the beginning. There are more to come.”
He stood, his presence filling the room. “You may have awakened the relic, but whether you are truly the one meant to be chosen remains to be seen. Until then, you will be watched.”
A single statement was all it took for me to no longer be merely a thief awaiting judgment, but something far more dangerous: a question that needed answering.
A strange weight pressed on my chest, unfamiliar and suffocating. My mind whirled too quickly to keep up, details converging yet leaving me without answers. I’d spent my life slipping into locked rooms, reading clues, uncovering secrets others hid.
Every puzzle had a solution, every riddle a pattern, and I was excellent at deciphering these. But for the first time in my life, I was faced with a mystery I couldn’t untangle. No thread to pull, no lock to pick. Just bruises that spoke in riddles and royals who looked at me as if I were both curse and key.
The queen studied me, her expression caught between sorrow and hope. “Whoever you are, the enchantment has chosen you. Perhaps fate is not finished with our family after all.”
Though I wanted to scoff—to toss back some biting remark to reclaim control—I had none left to stand on, entirely unmoored. I cast a panicked glance towards the door flanked by guards, but knew instinctively that escape had become even more impossible as I was no longer a common criminal but someone the royal family was pinning their hopes on. A thief, cornered not by guards or locks, but by a destiny I couldn’t steal my way out of.
For the first time in my life, I had found a riddle I couldn’t solve.
CHAPTER 5
“Thank you, captain.” The king waved a dismissive hand towards Tomas, who stepped up beside me, nodding to the men with him.
The guards closed in, forming a silent wall of armor around me as we moved through the corridors. Their hands hovered near their weapons, the threatening stance imparting a clear message:Don’t try anything.
Warnings had never deterred me, more invitations than barriers. But all in due time; patience was a virtue every skilled thief employed, especially when under scrutiny this tight.
Every polished marble surface reflected back my calculating gaze, every suit of armor lining the walls seemed to mask hidden watchers, every shadow contained a spy. I needed a chance to think, to regain control of the chaos swirling in my chest. But each time I slowed, the guards adjusted their pace in tandem with mine, a wordless reminder that my movements were no longer my own.
I might have been physically restrained, but a thief’s observation or plotting could not be bound by chains.
My gaze swept the hallway with trained instinct—the placement of the sconces, the unevenness of a floor tile, thenumber of doors and the types of lock on each window, the way sunlight fractured through stained glass. My mind mapped the route automatically, committing every alcove and turn of the palace’s layout to memory. Information was a thief’s sharpest blade.
We turned a corner and I halted. “Keep moving,” Garrett barked, but I barely heard him.
Something about this hall stirred my memory, though it wasn’t a wing I’d explored the night before. I scanned the gallery until my eyes landed on a portrait. My breath caught in my throat.
I recognized that profile—the same one that had become blurred by the strange visions that had filled my night. A regal young man adorned in ceremonial robes of midnight blue, stitched with silver threads like falling stars. A sword rested at his hip and a ring glinted on his finger, the very one I’d glimpsed during my casual exploration of his chambers the evening before.
It was him, the man from my dreams…and the prince missing from the kingdom.
“Is that…?” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Tomas stepped closer to the portrait. “Prince Evander, Crown Prince of Aeloria. The kingdom's golden son. Missing for nearly five years now.”
