When Ravens Arrive

The Ravens hadn’t flown over Elowen in nearly two decades.

Not since the Winter Pact broke and the sky turned black with feathers. Not since the old king—the Queen’s father—disappeared with a single message carved into the throne room door: “She knows.”

Caelum remembered that winter too clearly.

He’d been a boy then. Standing by his father’s boots, gripping the hilt of a sword too heavy for his hands. They’d told him to remember one thing above all:

When the Ravens return, trust no one—not even your own blood.

Now, standing in the watchtower with frost in his hair and a spyglass to his eye, he saw the truth again.

The Ravens had returned. Not birds—men. Silent riders in black cloaks, their sigils marked by broken wings and inked curses. Three of them, approaching the East Gate under the pretense of diplomacy.

But Caelum could smell war.

He didn’t go to the Queen first. He went to her.

---

Seraphine sat in the library, but she wasn’t reading. She was staring at a book that wasn’t open, her fingers resting on the page like it might speak to her if she waited long enough.

He didn’t knock.

“The Ravens are here.”

Her head lifted sharply. “Already?”

“They crossed the river this morning. Arrived an hour ago.”

“What do they want?”

He closed the door. “You.”

Silence pulsed between them. Heavy. Breathing.

“I don’t know what I am,” she said softly. “I don’t know why they care.”

Caelum moved closer. “You don’t have to.”

She looked at him. “But I do.”

He hesitated. “I’ll protect you.”

A pause.

“And when I no longer need protecting?”

He didn’t answer that. He didn’t know how to.

---

The palace turned colder the moment the Ravens entered.

Their leader, Lord Valek—an angular man with a voice like ash—stood before the throne without bowing. He looked at the Queen with something like pity.

“Your Majesty,” he drawled. “We come for what is owed.”

Isolde didn’t flinch. “Elowen owes nothing to dead men walking.”

Valek smiled faintly. “Then why hide her?”

He turned—eyes locking onto Seraphine, who stood behind Caelum and Lucien.

“You’ve grown,” he said.

“I don’t know you,” she replied, voice flat.

“No,” he said. “But your blood does.”

Lucien stepped forward, bright and reckless. “You’re not here to make friends. Speak your terms or get out.”

Valek chuckled. “The Crown Prince speaks. Charming. But you might want to ask your Queen what price was paid to keep the child hidden.”

Seraphine’s heart hit her ribs. “What price?”

Valek’s eyes glittered. “The real heir to the throne.”

---

The room exploded.

Lucien shouted something—Caelum moved like lightning—guards drew swords—

But Seraphine didn’t move. She couldn’t.

The real heir?

She turned to the Queen. “Is it true?”

Isolde said nothing.

“Is it true?”

Finally, the Queen looked up.

“Yes.”

---

In the chaos that followed, Seraphine found herself alone in the corridor, one hand pressed to the wall as if it could hold her up.

Caelum found her minutes later, breath tight.

“Why didn’t she tell me?” she asked.

“She protected you.”

“By lying to me?”

He stepped forward. “By keeping you alive.”

Seraphine shook her head. “What am I supposed to do now? Fight for a throne I didn’t know I had? Or run like a coward into another lie?”

Caelum’s voice dropped. “You survive. And then you decide.”

She looked up at him. “You still trust me?”

“I don’t trust anyone,” he said. “But I believe in you.”

Then he did something unexpected.

He reached for her hand.

Not as a knight.

Not as a soldier.

But as a man.

And she didn’t pull away.

---

That night, the Queen summoned Seraphine once more.

No guards. No council. Just a candlelit chamber and a tired woman who had ruled longer than she had ever rested.

“You want answers,” Isolde said.

“I want the truth.”

The Queen placed a small, leather-bound journal on the table.

“This is your father’s. He wrote down everything before they took him.”

Seraphine’s hands trembled as she touched it.

“He was the one who hid you?” she asked.

Isolde nodded once. “He betrayed me to save you.”

“And my mother?”

The Queen’s voice cracked. “My sister.”

Seraphine nearly dropped the book.

Isolde looked at her with something raw in her gaze.

“They said the bloodline would destroy us. That you were born of too much power. Too much truth. But I see it now.”

Seraphine swallowed hard. “See what?”

“The girl who will end the war I started.”

---

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