ALDRIC'S POV
I threw myself in front of Kael without thinking.
Raven's blade stopped an inch from my throat. Her black eyes widened with surprise—she hadn't expected me to move, to shield the brother she'd come to kill.
"Interesting," she murmured. "You just met him and you're already willing to die for him."
"He's my brother." My voice didn't shake even though my heart hammered like drums. "I won't let you hurt him."
Raven tilted her head, studying me like I was a puzzle. "Your brother was trained to murder you. He stood over your sleeping body with a blade tonight. And you defend him?"
"Yes."
"Foolish." She moved so fast I didn't see it—just felt hands grabbing my shoulders and throwing me across the room.
I crashed into the wall, stars exploding in my vision. Pain shot through my back.
"Aldric!" Kael shouted. He moved between me and Raven, weapons ready, shadows gathering around him like armor.
But Raven just laughed.
"Oh, little brother," she said sadly. "You think you can fight me? I taught you everything you know."
"But not everything you know," Kael shot back.
They moved at the same time—two shadows colliding in a dance of death. Blades flashed. Darkness swirled. They were so fast I could barely track them.
Seraphina appeared at my side, helping me stand. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." I wasn't, but we didn't have time for pain. "We need to help Kael."
"Help him?" Seraphina formed ice daggers. "How? They're moving faster than we can see!"
She was right. Kael and Raven fought like they were made of smoke and lightning. They'd disappear into shadows, reappear across the room, clash weapons in a spray of sparks, then vanish again.
But even I could tell Kael was losing.
Raven was better. Faster. Every move calculated. She wasn't trying to kill him quickly—she was playing with him. Showing him how outmatched he was.
"Stop!" I shouted. "Both of you, stop!"
They didn't even slow down.
Kael took a cut across his shoulder. Blood sprayed. He grimaced but kept fighting, shadows healing the wound even as it opened.
"You disappoint me," Raven said conversationally while trying to stab him. "I trained you better than this. Your footwork is sloppy. Your attacks predictable."
"Maybe I don't want to kill you!" Kael blocked her strike, barely. "You were the closest thing to family I had!"
"Was." Raven's face showed nothing. "Past tense. The moment you betrayed Master Corvus, you stopped being family. Now you're just another target."
She kicked him in the chest. He flew backward, crashing into my desk. Papers scattered everywhere.
I ran forward. Stupid, maybe, but I couldn't just watch my brother die.
"Aldric, no!" Seraphina yelled.
Raven spun toward me, blade rising. I saw my death in her empty eyes.
Then ice exploded between us—a wall three feet thick, blocking her strike.
Seraphina stood with both hands raised, sweat dripping down her face. Creating that much ice that fast had drained her. But she'd saved my life.
"Get Kael and run!" she ordered. "I'll hold her off!"
"You can't—"
"I said run!"
Raven touched the ice wall almost gently. It shattered like glass.
"Brave," she told Seraphina. "But ice melts in shadow." She gestured and darkness wrapped around Seraphina like chains, lifting her off the ground. "And I'm much older than your little prince's pet assassin."
"Let her go!" Kael struggled to his feet, bleeding from a dozen cuts. "Your fight is with me, Raven. Leave them alone."
"My fight is with traitors." Raven's voice stayed calm, pleasant even. Like she was discussing the weather while choking my best friend with shadows. "Master Corvus gave me specific orders: kill everyone in this room. Make it hurt. Make it memorable."
Seraphina struggled against the shadow chains, her face turning red. She couldn't breathe.
Fury burned through me—hot and bright and consuming. My hands tingled with strange energy.
"I said—" my voice came out wrong, deeper, echoing with power I didn't understand "—LET. HER. GO."
Light exploded from my hands.
Pure, brilliant light that burned away shadows like the sun burning fog. Raven's shadow chains dissolved. Seraphina fell, gasping for air.
Everyone stared at me.
"That's impossible," Raven breathed. "Light magic? The royal bloodline wasn't supposed to—" She stopped herself, but too late.
"What do you mean?" I demanded. My hands still glowed with golden light. "What wasn't supposed to happen?"
Raven's mask finally cracked. Fear flickered across her face. Real fear. "Master Corvus didn't tell us you'd awakened. This changes everything."
"Tell us what?" Kael moved beside me, his shadows and my light swirling together—dark and bright, opposites that somehow fit. "What's going on, Raven?"
She backed toward the broken window. "I need to report to Master Corvus. Regroup. Rethink strategy."
"You're running?" Kael sounded shocked. "You never run."
"I'm not running. I'm retreating." Her eyes fixed on me with something like wonder mixed with terror. "The prophecy was real. The twins survived. Shadow and light, darkness and dawn. If you two unite your powers..." She shook her head. "Master Corvus needs to know immediately."
"Wait!" I called. "What prophecy? What are you talking about?"
But Raven melted into shadows and vanished through the window.
Silence filled the room except for our heavy breathing and Seraphina's coughing.
"What just happened?" Seraphina rasped.
I stared at my hands. The light was fading but I could still feel it—warm and powerful and utterly foreign. "I don't know. I've never done that before."
"Light magic," Kael said quietly. He looked at his own shadow-wrapped hands, then at mine. "You have light magic. I have shadow magic. We're opposites."
"Twins are often opposite," Seraphina managed. She was still on the ground, rubbing her throat. "But this feels like more than genetics."
The attack bell had stopped ringing. No more screams echoed through the castle. Either the guards had won, or everyone was dead.
I hoped desperately it wasn't the latter.
Captain Marcus burst through the door, bloody but alive. "My prince! The assassins retreated. Just... stopped fighting and disappeared. All of them at once. Like they received orders to withdraw."
"They did," Kael said grimly. "Raven's orders. She's Corvus's second-in-command. If she calls retreat, everyone obeys."
"Why would they retreat?" I asked. "They were winning."
"Because of you." Kael pointed at my hands. "That light magic. Raven said something about a prophecy. About twins with shadow and light powers."
"I've heard rumors of that prophecy," Seraphina said thoughtfully. She'd gotten to her feet, though she swayed a bit. "Old stories from before the Godswar. Twin children born of royal blood, one wielding shadow, one wielding light. Together they could..." She paused. "I thought it was just myth."
"What could they do together?" I pressed.
"The stories said they could either save the world or destroy it." She looked between me and Kael. "Depending on whether they stood together or apart."
My blood went cold. "And Master Corvus knows this prophecy?"
"Apparently." Kael's face had gone pale. "Which means everything—the massacre, stealing me as a baby, training me to kill you—all of it was planned. He was trying to make sure we'd be enemies. Make sure we'd destroy each other instead of uniting."
"Why?" I demanded. "What does he gain from that?"
"Chaos." Seraphina's strategic mind was already working. "If twin princes destroy each other, it creates a power vacuum. Wars break out. The continent burns. And the Veil thrives in chaos. More contracts. More killing. More power."
"But we didn't destroy each other," Kael said softly, looking at me. "You showed me mercy. Showed me family. We united instead."
"Which terrifies them," I realized. "That's why Raven ran. We're more dangerous together than apart."
"So what do we do now?" Captain Marcus asked. "They'll come back. With more assassins. Better plans."
I looked at my twin brother—the weapon Corvus had tried to aim at my heart. The brother who'd chosen family over orders.
And I made a decision.
"We don't wait for them to come back," I said firmly. "We go after them. We find Master Corvus and end this before more people die."
"That's suicide," Seraphina argued. "We don't even know where the Veil headquarters is. It could be anywhere."
"I know where it is," Kael said quietly. Everyone turned to stare at him. "I lived there for eighteen years. I can take you there."
"It's a trap," Seraphina insisted. "They'll be waiting."
"Probably." Kael smiled grimly. "But what choice do we have? Run and hide while Corvus picks off everyone we care about? Or attack first and maybe—just maybe—catch him off guard?"
He was right. We couldn't keep defending. Eventually, Corvus would win.
"Then we attack," I decided. "At dawn, we leave for Veil headquarters. Kael leads the way."
Kael nodded slowly. "There's something you should know first. About Corvus. About why he stole me specifically."
"What?" I asked.
He took a deep breath, then dropped the bomb that changed everything:
"The night of the massacre, Corvus didn't just kill our parents. He absorbed their royal magic—the divine essence passed down through Thornhaven blood for centuries. That magic should have died with them. But Corvus found a way to steal it. To make himself immortal."
My heart stopped. "Immortal?"
"And he's had eighteen years to grow stronger while searching for the rest of the divine magic." Kael looked at me seriously. "The magic that lives inside you and me. The light and shadow powers we just discovered. He didn't just want us dead, Aldric. He wants to eat our magic and become a god."