Aria Vale refused to trade herself for another hostage. She and Kael Blackwood returned to the ruined border fortress of Hollow Moon before midnight, using the key from the ambush to enter the archive their enemy had tried to keep buried.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall tracking Aria Vale's life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every loss with patient precision. At the center, a line connected her to Kael Blackwood, then continued toward a sealed record neither of them had seen.
Kael Blackwood reached it first. The evidence proved the truth neither of them was ready to trust: The royal bite on her shoulder proves she is the last living heir to the Moon Throne. It also showed why he had been tied to the conspiracy long before he met Aria Vale.
Footsteps filled the corridor. Kael Blackwood reached for the wolf fighting beneath his skin, but Aria Vale stopped him. Running had brought her here. This time she would make the person hunting them speak.
The archive door opened. The intruder removed a hood, and Aria Vale's breath caught. The face belonged to someone whose funeral she had attended—and the hostage video had been playing from an empty room.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose: expose it and destroy Kael Blackwood, or bury it and become the woman who betrays him.”
Aria Vale took Kael Blackwood's hand instead.
The stranger smiled and pressed a remote. Behind them, the archive began counting down from ten.