Chapter Four
"I… I had a dream," Zeva whispered once her breathing finally steadied. "Or should I call it a nightmare?"
Her maids exchanged uneasy glances. The one named Eva quickly stepped forward, gently dabbing Zeva's damp face with a towel, her eyes still clouded with worry.
"It was only a dream, Your Highness," Eva said softly. "You should not trouble yourself with it. Today is your birthday. You must be ready to greet the morning."
She helped the princess rise from the bed, but Zeva's expression remained distant.
"I know what you're saying," Zeva murmured as she walked toward the bathing room, her maids following. "But you both know—I have never dreamed. Not once. And this one… it felt too real. Terrible."
"You should not think of it," said Lila, the other maid, her tone careful but firm. "Even if it was a nightmare, today is still your day, my lady. You should be happy."
Zeva gave a sharp, mocking smile. "Happy?" she repeated, her voice bitter. "The day I will spend locked in this chamber, while others dance and celebrate in my name? What joy is there in that?"
The maids fell silent, lowering their gazes, and busied themselves with their duties.
After her bath, they began their careful work—Eva laying out gowns of silk and lace, Lila weaving her silver hair into shining waves and dusting her cheeks with a faint glow of powder. For a moment, everything seemed ordinary.
Until Eva froze.
She had drawn a gown across Zeva's shoulders when her eyes fell upon something at the princess's back. Her breath caught.
"Your Highness…" she whispered, reaching out hesitantly.
Zeva flinched as Eva's fingers brushed against her skin. A sharp sting of pain shot through her body, and she winced. "What is it?" she gasped, twisting to look.
Eva's face was pale. "You have… marks. Two of them. Red and glowing—like the signs of wings beginning to form."
Zeva's brows furrowed. "Wings? That's not possible. My mother is a witch. My father, a dragon. Should I not be one of them? My elder sister is a witch, my younger brother a dragon… why would I grow wings like the Feather Clan?"
Her voice cracked with confusion, her silver eyes flashing with fear.
Eva could only shake her head. Lila stood frozen, her lips parted in shock. None of them had an answer.
At last, Zeva straightened, her voice sharper than before. "Lila, go. Call my parents."
The maid hesitated. "Your Majesty… they will soon come to wish you a happy birthday. Perhaps it is better to wait—"
"No," Zeva interrupted, her tone firm, her eyes burning with sudden urgency. "Go now."
Lila bowed quickly, her hands trembling, and hurried from the chamber.
Zeva stood in silence as Eva tried to comfort her, but inside, dread coiled in her chest. The nightmare. The marks. The whispers.
Something was happening to her.
Something her parents had feared for eighteen long years.
King Gideon and Queen Lilith entered their daughter's chamber in haste. They had been preparing for the day in their own quarters when Zeva's maid came rushing in, her voice trembling, saying the princess had summoned them.
Zeva had never once called for them. Always, it was they who came to her. For her to summon them now, on this day of all days—both king and queen knew what it must mean.
They did not ask the maid a single question. They simply went straight to Zeva.
Inside her chamber, the princess was already dressed in her birthday gown, her silver hair gleaming like moonlight, her eyes troubled. Even so, her beauty was striking, almost otherworldly.
King Gideon dismissed the maids with a firm wave of his hand. "Leave us."
The room fell into a heavy silence as the royal parents and their daughter faced one another.
"You called for us, Zeva," King Gideon said at last, his voice steady but tight. "What has happened?"
Without a word, Zeva rose from her bed. Slowly, she turned her back to them, lowering the fabric of her gown to reveal the marks.
The king and queen froze. The twin scars were glowing faintly red, carved like the first strokes of wings struggling to break free.
"Wings," Queen Lilith murmured, her voice calm but filled with sorrow. "You are growing wings."
Zeva spun back toward them, her silver eyes searching their faces. What shocked her most was not their reaction—it was their lack of surprise. They were not confused, not horrified. No. They had expected this.
"You knew," she whispered, her voice trembling. "You knew this would happen. But… why? Aren't I your child? How can I grow into something that doesn't belong to either of you?"
Tears pricked her eyes as she looked desperately between them.
Lilith stepped forward, her expression softening. She reached out, taking Zeva's trembling hand, guiding her back down onto the bed. "I carried you for nine months," she said gently. "I gave birth to you with my own hands. You are our daughter. That truth will never change. You are simply… different."
King Gideon lowered himself into the sofa opposite them, his broad shoulders weighed down as though by chains. His eyes, dark with sorrow, met his daughter's.
"How?" Zeva's voice broke. "Why? What am I?"
The silence stretched before the king finally spoke, his voice heavy with regret.
"We do not know," he admitted. "Only that you are a being who should never have walked this world… much less been born of our kind."
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😮 This leaves Zeva shaken, but also opens the door for the prophecy to come up very soon.
......
"You are a being who should never have walked this world… much less been born of our kind."
The words echoed inside Zeva's head, crashing over her like waves.
A forbidden being. That was what her father was calling her.
Her lips trembled. "Last night, at midnight," she whispered, "I heard a man's voice. He said, 'At last… you are of age.' His whisper was loud and clear, though no one was in my chamber. And then… I dreamed. For the first time in my life."
She clenched her hands together, her voice breaking. "In that dream, I was running through the forest. I couldn't see what chased me. I fell, and when I looked up—I saw him. His eyes… red like burning fire. He looked down at me like I was prey. He asked why I ran when I could not escape him."
Her silver eyes burned as she looked between her parents. "That was him, wasn't it? The one you've been protecting me from. My wings—they're connected to him, aren't they?"
The chamber fell into heavy silence. King Gideon and Queen Lilith exchanged a long, sorrowful glance. It was no longer possible to keep their daughter blind to her fate.
The king closed his eyes, exhaling a heavy breath, before speaking. His voice was deep, heavy with memory.
"Eighteen years ago, on the eve of your birth, the High Priestess of Avaloria received a vision. A prophecy. She said a royal child would be born—a girl with wings of crimson majesty. A child of doom."
Zeva's heart pounded in her chest.
The king's tone grew darker as he continued. "She spoke of a girl who would be bound to the Devil himself. Either she would be his death, or he would be hers. Their meeting was inevitable. Their journey, unavoidable. But if they ever lived together as one… the world would fall to ruin."
His eyes seemed to glaze as he recited the words he had never forgotten. "On the day of the prophecy fulfilled—the sky will cry, the hells will break loose, chaos will shake the heavens, and the earth will burn. She lives, he dies. He lives, she dies. But if both live… the world perishes."
A tear slipped down Queen Lilith's cheek as she took her daughter's hand. "And the very next day, you were born, Zeva. With the marks of wings upon your back. The High Priestess sealed them with her power, so you might grow in safety. But the seal was only ever meant to last eighteen years."
Zeva stared at them in shock, her body trembling. Pieces of her life fell together like shards of broken glass—the isolation, the endless guards, the suffocating protection.
It was never only about keeping her safe.
They were keeping her hidden to protect the world.
For eighteen years… and no longer.