# The Queen He Sent Away

"Finishing what should have been done five years ago," Marissa said, signaling her knights. "Mother realized we don't need to kill the boy to get rid of you. We just need him to suffer an... unfortunate illness." She uncorked the vial. "A drop of dragon-gall in his water, and you will slowly wither away in your sleep. Tragic, really. The court will weep for their sweet princess."

"You monster!" Aria spat.

The two shadow-knights lunged forward. But Aria was no longer the helpless princess trapped on a crystal platform. She dodged the first guard's grab, using her silver-armored elbow to strike him hard in the sternum.

Kael didn't hesitate. He grabbed the second guard through the cell bars, twisting the knight's helmet back until the man dropped his keys.

"Aria! The keys!" Kael shouted.

Aria snatched the iron ring from the floor, unlocked the cell, and threw the door open. Kael surged out, slamming the guard into the stone wall. He seized a discarded longsword from the fallen knight, his blacksmith movements fast and lethal.

Marissa shrieked as Kael shattered her vial against the wall with the flat of his blade. "Guards! Treason in the dungeons!" her voice shrieked up the stairwell.

"We have to move!" Kael grabbed Aria’s hand. The moment their skin touched, a warm surge of energy washed over them both, dulling their aches and burning away their fatigue.

They bolted down the dark subterranean tunnels beneath the castle—tunnels Kael knew from his childhood days navigating the city's underbelly. Behind them, horn calls echoed through the stone corridors. The palace was on high alert.

They emerged out of a sewer grate into the rain-slicked alleys of the Lower Dregs. Torrential rain poured down, washing away the mud on Kael's face and splashing against Aria’s silver armor.

"Halt!"

A towering knight in gold-trimmed steel stepped out from the storm, flanked by six bowmen with arrows drawn. It was High Captain Thorne—the most feared warrior in Valoria and King Alden's personal guard.

"Captain Thorne..." Aria gasped, pulling Kael behind her. "Please. My stepmother is poisoning my father. You must believe me!"

Thorne looked at the fugitive princess, then at the dirt-stained blacksmith boy holding a royal sword. He slowly lifted his visor, exposing a deep scar across his eye.

"I know, Princess," Thorne said quietly.

Aria blinked in shock. "What?"

"I served your mother before she passed," Thorne said, his voice heavy with regret. "I suspected Celeste's poison for years, but I lacked proof. When this boy shattered the Aethel-iron tonight, he proved the Queen’s magic was dark."

Thorne turned to his men. "Lower your bows." He then threw a heavy leather sack and a map toward Kael. "There is a secret passage through the eastern wall. Go to the Sun-Forge in the Obsidian Mountains. Learn to master your bond before Celeste hunts you down."