The Sovereign Crest burned across Gareth's hand as though it had been waiting forty years to be remembered.
He stared at the golden lines spreading from his palm toward his wrist.
"No."
Morvus smiled from across the chamber.
"There it is."
Gareth rubbed at the mark.
Nothing changed.
It was not ink.
It was beneath his skin.
Alive.
Toby approached him.
"Father?"
Gareth barely heard him.
For decades, Gareth had believed he knew exactly who he was.
Son of a northern blacksmith.
Orphaned at twelve.
Recruited into the king's army at sixteen.
Knighted at twenty-two.
Sworn to the Sovereign Guard.
None of that explained the mark.
Cael stared at Gareth's hand.
"You have the same blood."
"No."
"You can see it."
"I can see something."
Morvus laughed.
"Denial is such a loyal companion."
Gareth raised his eyes.
"What did you do to me?"
"Nothing."
"Then explain this."
"I merely gave you the third key."
Morvus nodded toward the silver key Gareth had caught.
"The key awakened what was already there."
Edric stepped closer.
"Gareth..."
"Don't."
"But I remember something."
Gareth turned.
"What?"
Edric looked uncertain.
"My father knew."
"King Aldren?"
"Yes."
"Knew what?"
"That there was something unusual about you."
Gareth laughed bitterly.
"Everyone has apparently known my life except me."
"When you joined the Sovereign Guard, Aldren personally ordered your records sealed."
"I was told that was because of my service in the Northern Campaign."
"It wasn't."
"Then why?"
Edric looked toward Morvus.
"I never knew."
Morvus answered.
"Because Aldren discovered Gareth wasn't a blacksmith's son."
Toby looked at Gareth.
Cael remained silent.
"Whose son was he?" Toby asked.
Morvus smiled.
"That is the question that destroyed a king."
The third gate opened another inch.
Cold air poured upward from the staircase beneath it.
The golden symbols across the chamber began flickering.
Ysara suddenly staggered.
Toby caught her.
"Ysara?"
The black veins from the poison had reached her neck.
Cael swore.
"The antidote."
They had returned to High Keep partly to save her and had never reached the apothecary.
Veyron knelt beside her.
"She doesn't have long."
Ysara pushed him away.
"Don't waste time."
Toby glared at her.
"We're not doing this again."
"Toby—"
"You told me my life mattered. Yours does too."
"I never said that."
"You didn't have to."
Mira stepped forward.
"I know where the apothecary stores white thorn."
Gareth immediately said, "You're not going alone."
Veyron stood.
"I'll take her."
Gareth looked at him.
"You admitted murdering the queen."
"At her request."
"That distinction isn't as comforting as you think."
"We can debate morality after Ysara stops dying."
Annoyingly reasonable.
Gareth nodded.
"Go."
Mira looked toward Toby.
"I'll come back."
He met her eyes.
"Be careful."
Something softened in her expression.
Then she and Veyron disappeared through the upper passage.
Morvus watched without interfering.
That worried Gareth.
"You could stop them," he said.
"Yes."
"Why don't you?"
"Because Ysara isn't important anymore."
Ysara smiled weakly.
"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
Morvus ignored her.
His attention remained on Gareth.
"The third gate requires three bloodlines."
"You said there were three Vaelor heirs."
"No."
Morvus's smile sharpened.
"I said there were three."
Gareth's hand tightened around the silver key.
"Explain."
"Seraphine carried the blood of Azrath's daughter."
He pointed toward Toby and Cael.
"The twins inherited that line."
"And Gareth?"
"His line comes from Azrath's son."
Silence.
Toby looked at Gareth.
"So we're related to Azrath through both parents?"
"Yes."
Cael's face twisted.
"That sounds intentional."
"It was."
Gareth understood.
"You arranged Seraphine and me."
Morvus smiled.
"Finally."
Rage surged through Gareth.
"You manipulated us?"
"Not love."
Morvus's expression became strangely sincere.
"That part surprised me."
Gareth wanted to kill him.
Morvus continued.
"I arranged circumstances. Meetings. Assignments. Opportunities."
"You put Seraphine in my path."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because after three thousand years, the two branches had to reunite."
Toby touched his crest.
"To create us."
"Exactly."
Cael laughed bitterly.
"So even our birth was part of your plan."
"Your birth was the culmination of thirty-seven generations of planning."
Cael raised the Kingsbane fragment.
"I am going to enjoy ending yours."
Morvus smiled.
"That anger is why I preferred you."
Toby frowned.
"Preferred him for what?"
Morvus looked toward the third gate.
"To survive."
Silence.
Gareth stepped forward.
"What happens when that gate opens?"
"Only one twin can leave."
Toby and Cael looked at each other.
"No," Gareth said.
"The Twin Flame is not two flames forever," Morvus continued. "At the final gate, they reunite."
Cael's face hardened.
"Meaning?"
"One absorbs the other."
Toby whispered, "One of us dies."
"Not exactly."
"Then what?"
"One becomes complete."
Gareth drew a fallen sword.
"That will not happen."
Morvus's eyes moved toward him.
"It already has."
Everyone froze.
"What?"
Morvus looked at Cael.
"Show him your back."
Cael did not move.
"Why?"
"Because you have never seen the entire pattern."
Cael's expression changed.
Slowly, he turned.
Toby lifted the back of his shirt.
More scars.
Hundreds.
But now the symbols glowed faintly.
Together they formed an image.
A dragon.
Split vertically in half.
One side gold.
One side black.
Toby whispered, "What is that?"
Ysara stared.
"The Joining Rite."
Cael turned on her.
"You knew?"
"No."
"Everyone says that."
"This time I mean it."
Morvus continued.
"The Brotherhood prepared Cael's body to receive the second flame."
Toby looked horrified.
"Me."
"Yes."
Cael immediately stepped in front of him.
"No."
Morvus laughed.
"What?"
"I won't do it."
"You've spent your entire life preparing."
"Without knowing."
"Knowledge changes very little."
"It changes everything."
For the first time, Toby saw Cael without anger protecting him.
He looked terrified.
"I won't kill him."
Toby whispered, "Cael..."
"I said no."
The third gate opened farther.
A pulse of energy swept through the chamber.
Both twins fell to their knees.
Their crests ignited.
Gareth rushed toward them.
His own mark burned.
Suddenly, he could feel something.
Not hear.
Feel.
Toby's fear.
Cael's rage.
Both inside him.
"My sons..."
Morvus watched with fascination.
"The bridge awakens."
Gareth looked up.
"What bridge?"
"You."
Morvus pointed at him.
"The twins cannot join without the blood of both Vaelor branches."
Gareth understood.
"You need me."
"Alive."
A dark smile crossed Gareth's face.
"That's unfortunate for you."
He placed the sword against his own throat.
Toby screamed.
"No!"
Morvus's expression finally changed.
"Gareth."
"Close the gate."
"You won't do it."
"Try me."
Toby grabbed his arm.
"Father, don't."
Gareth looked at him.
The word still felt strange.
Father.
But this time, he accepted it.
"I won't let him use you."
Cael stepped forward.
"There's another way."
"What?"
Cael looked at the third gate.
"We open it ourselves."
Ysara stared.
"Have you learned nothing?"
"If Morvus needs a specific ritual, we break the ritual."
"How?"
"All three marks."
Cael looked at Gareth.
"Together."
Morvus's confidence faltered.
Only slightly.
But Gareth saw it.
So did Toby.
"He's afraid," Toby said.
Morvus smiled.
"Of what?"
Toby looked toward the gate.
"Of us opening it before you're ready."
Morvus's smile disappeared.
That was enough.
Cael grabbed Gareth's marked hand.
Toby grabbed the other.
All three crests ignited.
"Gareth!" Edric shouted.
Morvus moved.
For the first time, truly moved.
"STOP THEM!"
Black smoke exploded from his body.
Thane and Edric attacked simultaneously.
Their swords passed through smoke, but the interruption bought one second.
One second was enough.
Gareth, Toby, and Cael placed their hands against the third gate.
The world disappeared.
---
Toby stood beneath a red sky.
Cael stood beside him.
Gareth behind them.
Before them stretched a battlefield covered with thousands of bodies.
At its center stood Azrath.
Human.
Bleeding.
Holding two infants.
A man approached him wearing the Black Crown.
Not Morvus.
The first king.
"You cannot keep them," the king said.
"They are my children."
"They belong to the pact."
"There will be no pact."
"Then your people die."
Azrath looked around.
Armies burned in the distance.
"What have you done?"
"What kings always do."
The Black King smiled.
"I created necessity."
The vision shifted.
The twins were taken.
Azrath was chained.
Kingsbane pierced his chest.
But instead of killing him, the sword divided his essence.
His scream shook the world.
The vision shifted again.
A woman ran through the chaos carrying one infant.
A man carried the other.
The bloodline divided.
Toby suddenly understood.
"That's why there are two branches."
Cael nodded.
Then Gareth noticed something.
The man carrying one infant turned.
Gareth saw his face.
His own face.
Not identical.
But unmistakably an ancestor.
The vision changed.
Generation after generation.
Two families moving separately through history.
Vaelor.
And another name.
A name Gareth had never heard.
Valdyr.
Then came the final image.
King Aldren standing over a newborn Gareth.
Beside him stood a woman.
Gareth recognized her from royal portraits.
Queen Maeryn.
Aldren's mother.
Gareth's heart stopped.
"No."
Queen Maeryn handed the infant to a blacksmith.
"His existence must never be known."
The blacksmith bowed.
"What should I call him?"
The queen looked at the baby.
"Gareth."
The vision shattered.
---
They returned to the chamber.
Gareth stumbled.
Toby caught him.
"What did you see?"
Gareth stared at Edric.
Edric stared back.
"What?"
Gareth could barely speak.
"Your grandmother."
Edric frowned.
"Queen Maeryn?"
"She gave me away."
Silence.
Edric understood before anyone else.
"No."
Morvus began laughing.
Slowly.
Almost delighted.
"Oh, Gareth."
Toby looked between them.
"What does it mean?"
Morvus answered.
"Queen Maeryn had two sons."
Edric went pale.
"My father had a brother?"
"A younger brother."
"Who?"
Morvus looked at Gareth.
"Your father."
Gareth's world shifted again.
If true, Gareth was not merely descended from the hidden Vaelor branch.
He was royal.
King Aldren's first cousin.
Toby and Cael were therefore royal through Gareth as well as Vaelor through Seraphine.
The competing stories about their blood had never been entirely false.
They had been incomplete.
Morvus applauded softly.
"Now you understand why Aldren sealed your records."
Gareth stared at him.
"Who was my father?"
Morvus smiled.
"The traitor."
Gareth froze.
"The letter said the third key was buried with the traitor."
"Yes."
"But Edric was called the traitor."
"A convenient revision."
"Who was he?"
Morvus's smile faded.
"Prince Lucian."
Edric whispered the name.
"I've never heard of him."
"You weren't supposed to."
"What happened to him?"
Morvus looked toward the open third gate.
"He tried to free Azrath thirty-nine years ago."
Gareth stared into the darkness.
"And?"
"I killed him."
Silence.
Then a voice came from beyond the gate.
"No."
Morvus went completely still.
Everyone turned.
Footsteps approached from below.
Slow.
Heavy.
A man emerged from the darkness.
He looked perhaps sixty.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Scarred.
A broken chain hung from one wrist.
On his left hand burned the same golden crest as Gareth's.
Gareth could not move.
The stranger looked at him.
His eyes filled with tears.
"My son."
Morvus backed away.
For the first time since Gareth had known him, the ancient creature wearing the Regent's body looked genuinely terrified.
The gray-haired man stepped fully into the chamber.
Then he looked at Morvus.
"You didn't kill me."
Prince Lucian smiled.
"You buried me with Azrath."