Zack's POV
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The wind howled through the jagged peaks as we rode through the outskirts of the Blacklands.
Selena sat ahead of me on her steed, silent, her silver cloak whipping behind her like the shadow of a memory she hadn't yet faced. She hadn't spoken since we left the capital under the cover of dawn.
But she didn't need to.
I could feel it — the weight of betrayal, the rage barely buried beneath her royal calm.
She was no longer the girl who used to doubt herself.
She was the Queen walking willingly into fire.
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The entrance to the Vault was hidden beneath the ruins of the Forgotten Temple — a place wiped from all maps.
It took blood to open the gate. Hers, of course.
> "Not just any queen can enter," Selena muttered as she sliced her palm and placed it against the obsidian door. "Only the one they were afraid of."
The stone trembled. Groaned.
And the earth opened.
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Inside, it was darker than anything we had ever stepped into. No torches. No wind. Just a silence so thick it felt like death holding its breath.
And then the voices came.
> "Selena..."
"You should not be here."
"The truth kills."
Selena lit her inner fire — the one she learned to summon from the dark training days. The flames were not red. They were violet — deep, unnatural, and flickering with ancient power.
The walls were covered in carvings. Old vampire scripture.
We read them out loud, line by line:
> "The First One was betrayed."
"The Throne was cursed to forget."
"Each Queen wears the name of a ghost."
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At the heart of the Vault, a silver coffin stood — chained, sealed in symbols older than the Kingdom.
> "You think it's...?" I asked.
> "Her," Selena replied, voice low. "The First Queen."
A single scroll rested on the lid.
Selena picked it up, unrolling it slowly.
Inside were names.
Dates.
Lies rewritten as laws.
And at the very bottom:
> The Blood Pact — signed in Amara's hand.
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Selena stepped back. Her eyes were filled with something I hadn't seen since the beginning.
Not just hurt.
Not just fury.
> Resolve.
> "They used her name to rewrite history," she whispered. "They stole the crown from its true line… and gave it to puppets."
> "And now?"
> "Now I break their history."
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But behind us, something stirred.
Chains clanged. The coffin creaked.
> "Selena—"
Too late.
The eyes of the First Queen opened.
And she smiled.
> "Daughter of the Dark.
Do you know what you've just awakened?"
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Secrets have roots.
But not all truths were meant to be unearthed.