Chapter 6

Kaelan’s POV

The brandy was decent. Not exceptional. Not the kind they kept in the palace cellars. But it did what it needed to do — burned on the way down and softened the edges of a long, miserable day.

I sat in the suite at the Moonlight Inn, boots off, collar loosened, staring at the fire dying in the hearth. Outside, rain hammered the windows. The northern border negotiations had dragged on for hours. Duke Varen was as stubborn as his bloodline suggested — all bluster and territorial pride, zero willingness to compromise.

But that wasn’t what was circling my mind.

It was her voice.

The new archivist. The one who’d answered my transmission stone this afternoon.

C-Claire isn’t here at the moment, Your Majesty.

Thin. Shaking. Terrified.

And yet — she hadn’t disconnected.

She stayed on the line, Alex murmured from the depths of my consciousness. My wolf was restless tonight. Pacing. Alert.

“She froze,” I corrected him, swirling the brandy. “There’s a difference p>

No. She spoke. She identified herself. She tried to ask your name. A low, rumbling laugh. When was the last time anyone dared ask the Emperor to identify himself?

I took another sip. He had a point, and I hated that.

The transmission stone on the side table pulsed — soft amber this time. Claire’s signature.

I pressed my palm to its surface.

“Your Majesty.” Claire’s voice came through crisp and dry. The same tone she’d used when I was a boy sneaking pastries from the kitchen. Respectful on the surface. Amused underneath. “I understand you terrorized my replacement today p>

“I didn’t terrorize anyone. I asked for border reports p>

“You shouted ‘your sovereign’ at a girl on her first day, Kaelan. The stone nearly cracked p>

“She asked who I was p>

“Because she didn’t know. Because she’s new. Because that’s a reasonable question from someone who has never heard your voice.” A pause. “She handled it rather well, all things considered p>

I leaned back in my chair. “She sounded like she was about to faint p>

“And yet she didn’t. She didn’t quit either. That puts her several ranks above her predecessor p>

Alex stirred again. Ask about her.

I ignored him. Then didn’t.

“Tell me about her. The archivist p>

“Elara Frostfang.” Claire’s tone shifted — still professional, but warmer. “Top honors from the Royal Academy in the capital. Languages, archival science, historical analysis. She worked for Lord Harwick’s private library for some time before I recruited her p>

“Harwick? That pompous fool wouldn’t know a treaty from a grocery list p>

“Which is precisely why she was wasted there. The girl reorganized his entire collection in a fraction of the time it should have taken. He never promoted her, of course. Too threatened p>

I turned the glass slowly in my hand. “What else p>

“She’s twenty-three. Single mother. A boy named Valerius — four years old. No father listed. She hasn’t shared the details of his parentage with anyone p>

Something about that detail snagged at me. I couldn’t say why.

A child, Alex said quietly. She’s raising a pup alone.

“She asked for time off this morning,” Claire continued. “Her son had an aptitude interview at the academy. She was apologetic about it — nearly tripping over her own words. I told her to go p>

“You told a brand-new employee to leave on her first day p>

“I told a mother to take care of her child. There’s a difference.” Claire’s voice carried a gentle edge. “She was back by early afternoon. Didn’t miss a single task p>

I set the glass down.

“Per protocol, her file doesn’t include a portrait,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

“No. Royal archivists at the private level are documented by credentials only. You’ll see her face when you return this weekend.” A beat of silence. “She left something for you, actually. A parchment scroll. I had it sent to your dispatch case p>

I reached for the leather case beside my chair and found the scroll — tied with a simple cord, sealed with plain wax. No family crest. No gilded edges. No perfume. Just clean parchment and neat handwriting.

I broke the seal and unrolled it.

At the top, in precise script: Daily Briefing for the Fifteenth of October for His Majesty of Nightfire.

I raised an eyebrow.

The scroll was organized into three clean sections. First — my schedule for the coming days, cross-referenced with territorial obligations and council availability. Second — a summary of pending correspondence, ranked by urgency, with brief contextual notes beside each entry. Third — and this was what stopped me mid-breath — a strategic observation.

She had flagged an inconsistency in the border tax records between two rival territories. A discrepancy so subtle I’d missed it myself. She’d noted it without commentary, without overreach, without a single word of self-congratulation. Just a clean notation: For Your Majesty’s consideration.

I read it twice.

Well, Alex said. The single word carried more weight than a full sentence.

“She’s thorough,” I admitted.

She’s brilliant. And she has spine. The kind you’ve been looking for in every simpering courtier who’s thrown themselves at your feet for years.

I folded the scroll carefully. Set it on the table beside my glass.

He wasn’t wrong.

Every year brought a new wave of them — noble daughters in silk gowns, batting their lashes, angling for a crown. They complimented my jaw. My eyes. My title. They laughed at things I hadn’t meant to be funny. They agreed with opinions I hadn’t yet stated.

None of them had ever flagged a tax discrepancy.

The fire cracked. A log split, sending a scatter of orange sparks across the stone hearth. I watched them die.

Five years.

It had been five years, and I still couldn’t shake her.

The Royal Masquerade Ball. The scent of winter jasmine and champagne. Hundreds of masked faces spinning beneath the chandeliers. I hadn’t wanted to be there. I never wanted to be at those things — all performance, no substance.

Then I saw her.

Ice-blue gown. Silver mask that caught the candlelight. She stood near the far wall, alone, watching the crowd with eyes that saw too much. Not preening. Not performing. Just — observing. The way a scholar watches a battlefield.

I crossed the room before I’d decided to move.

We danced. We talked. She was sharp and warm and unafraid. She didn’t know who I was behind the mask — or if she did, she didn’t care. She challenged me on a point about northern trade routes, and when I pushed back, she held her ground with a quiet fire that made my blood sing.

Alex had gone absolutely still that night. Reverent. A wolf recognizing something sacred.

Her, he’d whispered. It’s her.

We’d slipped away from the ballroom. Found a quiet balcony drenched in moonlight. What followed was — I closed my eyes. Even now, the memory burned.

Urgent. Desperate. The kind of need that bypasses thought entirely and lives only in the body. Her hands in my hair. My mouth on her throat. The way she said my name — just the initial, just the letter, because that was all she knew — like it was a prayer.

Before dawn, I was called away. An emergency at the northern border. Always the border. I’d pressed my gold wolf-crest pin into her palm — the one engraved with a “K” — and whispered a promise to return.

When I came back, she was gone. The room was empty. The sheets were cold.

Sir Cassian searched the guest registry for weeks. Every name. Every invitation. Nothing matched. She had vanished like smoke through a cracked window.

You never stopped looking, Alex said softly.

I opened my eyes. The fire had burned low. My brandy was warm and flat.

“No,” I said aloud. “I never stopped p>

I picked up the scroll again. Daily Briefing for the Fifteenth of October. Clean. Competent. Fearless in its precision.

Elara Frostfang. Twenty-three. Single mother. Top of her class. Brave enough to ask an emperor his name on her first day.

She’s not like the others, Alex said. There was something cautious in his voice. Almost tender. You feel it too.

“Maybe,” I conceded, though I fought to lower my expectations. After so many disappointments, hope had become a luxury I couldn’t afford. “But before that, she needs to be tested p>