The days melt into weeks.
Mama makes sure I eat well. Papa takes quiet walks with me in the garden each morning before he heads to work. Ray… Ray is the sunshine that gently warms the cracks in my soul. His laughter is my healing, his questions my anchor. He doesn't know what's happening, not entirely. He just knows Mama's home again, and that's enough for him.
He brings me little drawings; stick figures of our family, of a palace, of a big heart scribbled in red. He doesn't draw Cassian. He doesn't ask for him. But sometimes, when I'm tucking him into bed, he whispers, "Will he come back, Mama?"
I dont know how to answer that.
Because it's been a month now.
Thirty-one days since Cassian vanished into the silence.
I tried calling him. His lines are dead. No one at the palace has seen him. No word. No sign.
Esther calls occasionally to check on me. Yesterday, her tone was lower than usual.
"The council is uneasy, Celeste. Lord Edric is restless. They're talking about deposing the Queen entirely and shifting the royal succession. They say the crown is tainted now. Some suggest transferring power to one of the ancient families, to cleanse the line…"
I say nothing. I'm too tired to care.
Let them burn the palace to the ground. I'm done with secrets, with thrones built on lies and blood-swapped legacies.
But that night, something changes.
I dream.
Not of Cassian. Not of my mother, Queen Morgana. But of him, the man who called me daughter in a dream once before. The man whose voice steadied me when my grief threatened to drown me.
The Judge King. Lucien.
He stands in the ruins of the Grand Hall, the very place where the truth shattered everything and yet, he looks regal, unbroken, surrounded by light.
"Celeste," he says, not smiling but not cold. "You are stronger than you feel."
I step closer to him, my voice trembling. "They're trying to erase everything… the crown, the family, the future."
He nods. "That's what broken men do when truth rises, they scramble to silence it."
"What do I do?" I whisper.
His gaze holds mine.
"Stand!"
A breeze swirls around us, warm and charged.
"You're the blood of kings, not their puppet. Let them talk. Let them scheme. But when the time comes, rise!"
I blink.
He's gone.
I wake with tears in my eyes, but for the first time in weeks… My spine is straight. My limbs don't feel so heavy. The ache in my chest dulls enough for breath to return fully.
I rise from bed and open the curtains. The sun pours into the room like fire and promise.
Maybe it's time to return.
To face the storm not as a victim of it…
…but as the calm in its center.
***
I stare out the window of my childhood room, watching the streetlights flicker against the soft hum of the night. My suitcase is half-packed. My coat rests on the arm of the chair. Esther will be here by morning. But I'm not going back to the palace alone.
I didn't enter that palace by myself.
It started with him.
Cassian.
Arranged or not, forced or not, he was the reason I stepped into that life. Into that storm. And if I must return to it now, to take my place in a palace of fire and fractured truths, I will not do it without him.
I will find him.
I know where he is.
I don't know how, but the certainty sits in my bones like a prophecy.
But before I go, there's something else. Something I've buried for far too long.
A truth I owe to those who gave me shelter, even when I couldn't give them answers.
I walk into the living room where Mama and Papa sit, sipping tea in quiet understanding. They know I'm leaving. They've sensed it all day.
"Can I talk to you both?" I say gently.
Mama puts her cup down. Papa leans forward.
"What is it, my darling?" Mama asks.
I sit opposite them. My voice shakes, but I push forward. "I need to tell you something. Something I should have said years ago."
They exchange glances but don't interrupt.
"When I got pregnant at eighteen… you both asked me who was responsible. I didn't answer. Not because I was ashamed. But because I truly didn't know."
Their eyes widen slightly.
I continue. "But now I do. I found out the truth… not long after I married Cassian. During our real honeymoon, actually."
Papa's brows furrow, confused. "What is the truth now?"
I take a breath, the words finally heavy on my tongue. "Ray… my son. He's Cassian's child."
Silence.
Not even the clock ticks.
Mama leans back slowly. "What?"
"I know it sounds crazy. But it's true. Cassian and I met… long before the palace. Just once. It was a wild night. I never got his name. He didn't get mine. We never saw each other again. Until the arranged marriage, until I walked into that throne room—and saw him. The stranger."
Papa rubs a hand over his face, stunned. "Celeste, are you sure?"
I nod. "I took the test again after the honeymoon. The timelines matched. And the more time I spent with him, the clearer it became. He's the only man I've ever been with."
Mama clutches her chest. "Why didn't you tell us this before?"
"I was waiting… for the right time. When all the noise of the palace dies down. The secrets, the grief, it was too much. I couldn't add more weight. But now… now the truth needs to live outside of me."
Tears roll silently down Mama's cheeks. Papa just stares at the floor, whispering, "My God…"
"I don't want Ray to grow up with another secret," I say, quieter now. "He deserves to know the truth. Even if Cassian never comes back. Even if none of this ends the way we planned."
That night, I sit on Ray's bed after tucking him in. His eyes are wide, curious and alert. He knows something is different.
"Mama?" he says, "Are you sad again?"
I stroke his hair. "No, baby. I'm okay. But I have to tell you something important."
He sits up. "Is it about Papa?"
I smile, surprised. "You think you have a Papa?"
He nods. "Every kid does. I just don't know mine. But I think… maybe I've met him before."
Tears prick my eyes. "Yes, sweetheart. You have met him. Many times."
He stares at me. "Really?"
I take his tiny hands in mine.
"His name is Cassian. He's the man I married. The prince. The one who calls you little warrior."
Ray blinks. "Uncle Cassian… is my dad?"
I nod. "Yes, my love. He is."
His eyes widen, and then… he smiles.
A soft, shy, wonderful smile.
"I knew it," he whispers. "He felt like a dad."
I wrap my arms around him, hugging him close as my heart beats strong again for the first time in weeks.
Tomorrow, I leave to find Cassian.
But tonight, I breathe for the truth has finally come home.