Chapter 99 Caelum

• Drave Frost, my older brother, has returned. I hadn’t thought about him in years, not since I banished him from the kingdom of Veridiana after our father’s death. Drave Frost, always with his dangerous ideas, his vision of power as warped as the man himself. The idealization of a government built on oppression and brute force is a constant threat—and now that threat looms close to Aria. Close to my children.
• The mere thought that Drave might be plotting against them makes my blood boil. My family. A word I am barely beginning to understand and that is already becoming a target. Asher went ahead to make preparations for me. I cannot move my soldiers into the city—that would raise suspicions, and I don’t want my brother to know I’m coming. I need the element of surprise on my side.
• Things here in the capital are difficult as it is. Seraphina has vanished, and her absence has left me worried, complicating the matter of our official separation. The alliance between the kingdoms of Veridiana and Syltirion is fragile at best.