Chapter 30 The Crown And The Flame

• The coronation chamber shimmered with candlelight. Not because it needed grandeur, but because after everything they’d endured, the light felt earned.
• Kael stood still in the center of the room, his broad shoulders wrapped in the ceremonial black and gold cloak that once belonged to his father—a man both feared and forgotten. The metal clasp rested over his heart, cool and heavy. The weight wasn’t from the silver but from memory. From expectation.
• The nobles murmured in the background. A choir hummed a low chant, ancient and laced with the echoes of the old language. But Kael only heard her.