Kaelyn POV
I first noticed it on a night when I couldn't sleep.
Two weeks into training, my body was strong enough to handle the exhaustion but my mind was still wired. Still running from ghosts. Still waiting for someone to find me and drag me back to the palace.
Around midnight, I heard it.
Screaming. Muffled but real. Coming from Kael's tent.
My first instinct was to run. To hide. To pretend I hadn't heard anything. But something pulled me toward the sound instead. Something that recognized pain in another person.
By the time I got close, the screaming had stopped. I could see his silhouette inside the tent. Kael was sitting up, breathing hard like he'd just run for miles.
I should have walked away. He would have hated knowing I'd seen him like that. But I stayed at the edge of the firelight and watched until his breathing slowed. Watched until he seemed to come back into his own body.
The next morning, I didn't mention it. Just watched him across breakfast like I was trying to solve a puzzle I didn't have all the pieces for.
After that, I started noticing everything.
How he woke up before dawn and sat silent until the sun came up. How he watched me when he thought I wasn't looking. How his hands never completely relaxed. How sometimes he'd touch his scars like they were reminding him of something he wanted to forget.
His scars told stories. I could feel it. But the stories were written in a language I didn't know how to read yet.
One evening, about ten days later, we were all gathered around the fire. The camp was quieter than usual. Even the mercenaries seemed tired. Lyria was staring into the flames like she was reading something in them.
Corvin had finished eating, and he was leaning back against a log with a drink in his hand.
"You ever heard about the settlement?" he asked no one in particular.
"Which one?" Dane asked.
"The one that burned seven years ago," Corvin said. "About two days north of here. Small place. Mostly farmers. Some traders. Nothing that should have drawn attention from the kingdom."
Nobody said anything, but I felt the temperature shift.
"But someone decided they were a threat," Corvin continued. His voice was steady, but there was something underneath it. Anger maybe. Or sadness. "They had magic users there. People who could do things that scared the palace. So the palace sent soldiers."
I thought about magic. About the way Lyria's eyes glowed. About the way the air felt different when she was near.
"The soldiers came at night," Corvin said. "Burned the settlement. Killed everyone they thought was a threat. Left nothing but ash and bones."
He took a drink like he needed it.
"There was a boy there," Corvin continued. "Young. Maybe nineteen. He survived. Nobody knows how. Some say he hid. Some say he fought. Some say he was just too angry to die."
I looked toward Kael.
He wasn't moving. Wasn't reacting. But the air around him felt colder. Like all the warmth had been drained out and replaced with something else. Something dangerous.
"That boy decided that if the palace wanted him dead, he'd give them a reason to actually want it," Corvin said. "He became something they could fear. Something that would hunt them back."
Corvin looked directly at Kael then. For just a moment. Then away.
"Some people say he's still out there," Corvin finished. "Some people say he's waiting for the right moment to make the kingdom pay for what they did."
The fire crackled. Nobody spoke.
Later, after everyone had gone to their tents, I found Kael alone by the stream.
He was staring up at the stars like they might have answers to questions he'd been asking for years. His hands were clenched at his sides.
I almost walked away. Almost let him have his privacy.
Instead, I sat down beside him.
"You're running from something," I said.
He didn't look at me. Just kept staring at the sky.
"So are you," he said.
I thought about that. About the palace. About my father. About the girl I'd been before everything fell apart.
"I'm running from a life that wasn't mine," I said. "What are you running from?"
"Everything I was," Kael said. "And everything I became because of what happened to me."
He finally looked at me, and his eyes held so much darkness that I almost couldn't breathe.
"Some things hurt you so badly that you can't come back from them," he continued. "Some things break you into pieces, and you spend the rest of your life trying to figure out how to be a person instead of just rage and vengeance."
I didn't say anything. Just sat there beside him in the darkness and let him feel like he wasn't completely alone.
"I'm not a good person," Kael said quietly. "I want you to understand that. I've done things that would make you hate me if you knew what they were."
"I don't hate you," I said.
"You will," he replied. "Once you know the truth."
"What truth?"
He looked at me for a long moment. Like he was deciding whether to tell me something that would change everything.
Then he looked away.
"Not yet," he said. "You're not ready yet."
"I'm ready for whatever you need to tell me," I said.
"No," Kael said. His voice was gentle now. Different from the harsh training voice. "You're ready for a lot of things. But you're not ready for the truth about me. You're not ready for the decisions you're going to have to make."
He turned to face me fully.
"You're stronger than you think," he said quietly. "I know you don't believe that yet. I know you still feel like the girl who was exiled from the palace. But that girl is gone. She died in the forest. What's left is someone who can actually survive."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Because I see it every day," he said. "I see you getting stronger. I see you believing in yourself more. I see you becoming someone who doesn't apologize for taking up space anymore."
He reached out and tucked a strand of my short hair behind my ear. His scarred hand was gentle.
"That's worth protecting," he said. "You're worth protecting."
I didn't believe him. Not completely. But I wanted to. I wanted to believe that the person I was becoming was someone worth saving.
We sat like that for a while, not talking. Just existing in the same space. And for the first time since I'd left the palace, I felt like maybe I wasn't completely alone in whatever this was.
That's when Corvin appeared from the darkness.
"We need to pack," he said. His voice was urgent. Different from his normal calm tone.
"What happened?" Kael asked, already standing.
"Riders," Corvin said. "From the north. Palace riders. They're asking about a missing princess."
My entire body went numb.
"How far?" Kael asked.
"Half a day's ride. Maybe less."
Kael looked at me. "We need to leave. Now. In the dark. We don't stop until we're in the deep forest where they can't track us."
"They're looking for me," I said.
"They're looking for everyone who might help you," Corvin corrected. "Which means they'll kill anyone in this camp if it gets them closer to finding you."
I stood up fast. "I'm leaving. Right now. I'll go alone so you don't have to—"
"No," Kael said. His voice was sharp. Final. "You don't go anywhere without us. That's not happening."
He looked at Corvin. "How long do we have?"
"Not long," Corvin said. "Get her ready. We ride in ten minutes."
Corvin disappeared back toward camp, and Kael grabbed my hand.
"Listen to me," he said. His dark eyes held mine. "No matter what happens next, no matter what you hear or see or think you know, you trust me. You understand?"
"Why would—"
"Promise me," he said. "Because the next phase of this is going to be worse than anything you've experienced so far. And you need to know that I'm not letting you face it alone."
Before I could respond, Lyria appeared like she'd been waiting in the shadows.
"It's time," she said to Kael. Then to me, "You asked what the Sunblade was. You're about to find out. And you're about to understand why everyone is hunting it."
"I don't understand," I said.
"You will," Lyria replied. "By the time we reach the ruins, you'll understand everything. And you'll wish you didn't."
She walked away, leaving me standing in the darkness with Kael's hand still holding mine.
"We need to move," Kael said.
But before we could take a step, we heard it.
The sound of horses. Getting closer. And the shouts of men in armor.
The palace guards had found us.
And they were coming to drag me back to the life I'd escaped.