The archive was hidden beneath the ruined border fortress of Hollow Moon, protected by a lock that required two blood samples and a spoken family name. Aria Vale expected the door to reject her. It opened before Kael Blackwood finished the warning.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall of photographs tracking her life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every betrayal with patient precision. At the center of the wall, a red thread connected Aria Vale to Kael Blackwood, then continued toward a sealed photograph neither of them had seen.
He reached it first. The image showed their parents standing together years before either family claimed to have met. On the back, one sentence changed the meaning of every promise between them: the royal bite on her shoulder proves she is the last living heir to the Moon Throne.
Footsteps filled the corridor. Kael Blackwood reached for his weapon, 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.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose which one of you gets to survive it.”