Chapter 7 - The Secret Buried in Her Father’s GraveGabriel Thorn was imprisoned beneath Blackstone Keep.
Severin Black occupied the cell opposite him.
Nathaniel reclaimed the throne before sunset.
There was no celebration.
Too many questions remained.
Too many families needed answers.
Too many graves carried Gabriel’s lies.
Nathaniel’s first order restored the displaced clan leaders.
His second ended Gabriel’s emergency taxes.
His third opened the royal archives.
His fourth concerned Rowena.
“Leave her alone.”
The entire council stared.
Nathaniel repeated.
“Any councilor, noble, captain, priest, or gossip merchant who approaches Rowena Hartley demanding she accept a crown, mate bond, royal title, or ceremonial duty answers to me.”
An elder cleared his throat.
“My King, she is the Queenmaker.”
“She is also a person.”
Rowena, listening from the gallery, smiled.
He was learning.
Agnes did not attend.
She waited in a private chamber.
Rowena avoided her for six hours.
Then she could not anymore.
Nathaniel offered to come.
“No.”
He respected it.
Rowena entered alone.
Agnes stood near a window.
“My little Roe.”
“Don’t.”
The old woman stopped.
Rowena closed the door.
“Start with the funeral.”
Agnes sat.
“I was poisoned.”
Rowena’s anger weakened slightly.
“By Severin.”
“Yes.”
“He wanted you alive.”
“Eventually.”
Agnes rubbed her hands.
“At first he tried to kill me.”
“What changed?”
“He discovered you.”
Rowena swallowed.
“I arranged my death.”
“Without telling me.”
“If Severin believed I survived, he would find you sooner.”
“You could have taken me.”
Agnes looked away.
“Your father refused.”
“Why?”
“He hated the wolf world.”
“Because of you?”
“Yes.”
Agnes sighed.
“I told your father nothing until your mother became pregnant.”
Rowena froze.
“My mother knew?”
“Yes.”
Rowena barely remembered her mother.
Clara Hartley died from fever when Rowena was six.
Agnes continued.
“Your mother carried Vale blood through me. Your father wanted nothing to do with it.”
“So you hid.”
“Yes.”
“Then you faked your death.”
“Yes.”
“And left us.”
Agnes’s eyes filled.
“I watched from a distance.”
“That does not help.”
“I know.”
Rowena paced.
“Gabriel said you knew why Father died.”
Agnes lowered her eyes.
“He discovered Severin was watching you.”
Rowena stopped.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
Vincent’s timeline.
“What did he do?”
“He tried to move you out of the city.”
“He never told me.”
“He thought if you knew, you would refuse.”
Rowena laughed bitterly.
“Apparently secrecy is hereditary.”
Agnes flinched.
Fair.
Rowena continued.
“Then?”
“Severin used the gambling debt.”
“To trap him.”
“Yes.”
“Did Severin kill him?”
Agnes hesitated.
“No.”
Relief came too quickly.
Then Agnes added, “I did.”
The world stopped.
Rowena stared.
“What?”
Agnes’s face collapsed.
“Not intentionally.”
Rowena could not breathe.
“Explain.”
“Your father contacted me three months before he died.”
“You were in contact?”
“Yes.”
“He never told me.”
“No.”
Rowena gripped the chair.
“What happened?”
Agnes cried quietly.
“He wanted me to remove the Queenmaker mark from you.”
“Can that be done?”
“No.”
“But he believed?”
“I told him I could suppress it.”
Rowena waited.
“There is an herb called nightglass.”
Agnes’s voice shook.
“It weakens magical blood signatures.”
Rowena understood before she finished.
“You gave it to him.”
“Yes.”
“He took it?”
“No.”
Agnes looked at her.
“He put it in your food.”
Rowena’s stomach turned.
For months before her father died, she had been sick.
Headaches.
Weakness.
Fainting.
She thought it was exhaustion.
“The dose?”
“Too much.”
“Then why did Father die?”
Agnes’s tears fell.
“He tasted it first.”
Rowena went still.
“He realized something was wrong.”
Agnes covered her mouth.
“He took the entire mixture so you wouldn’t.”
Rowena stared.
The night her father collapsed.
He had made stew.
He refused to let her eat because he claimed it had spoiled.
Then two hours later his heart failed.
Rowena had blamed stress.
Debt.
Grief.
Her father had died saving her from a poison he helped administer.
She sat.
Agnes whispered, “I gave him the nightglass.”
Rowena could not look at her.
“I told him the correct amount.”
“That does not bring him back.”
“No.”
“Did you know it could kill?”
“In high doses.”
“And you gave it anyway.”
“To hide you.”
“There it is.”
Rowena stood.
“Everyone destroys someone and calls it protection.”
Agnes flinched.
“I loved you.”
“You left me.”
“I protected you.”
“You left me with a father drowning in debt while I worked three jobs.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Rowena’s voice broke.
“You don’t.”
Tears came.
She hated them.
“I sold my mother’s hairpin.”
Agnes cried harder.
“I sold Father’s coat two days after burying him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I went to the Grey Market with one copper coin because I thought I had nothing.”
Agnes whispered, “The coin brought you to Nathaniel.”
Rowena’s face hardened.
“Do not make my suffering into prophecy.”
Agnes fell silent.
The sentence hung.
Important.
Rowena wiped her face.
“Maybe the coin mattered.”
She opened the door.
“Maybe the bloodline mattered.”
Then looked back.
“But I mattered before any of that.”
Agnes nodded through tears.
“Yes.”
Rowena left.
Nathaniel waited outside.
He had promised not to enter.
He had still waited.
Rowena looked at him.
He opened his arms.
No question.
She stepped into them.
Nathaniel held her.
Nothing royal.
Nothing magical.
Just warmth.
She cried against his chest.
Later they sat on the floor because Rowena did not want to be in a royal bed.
“My father died trying to undo what he helped do.”
Nathaniel listened.
“He was afraid.”
“Yes.”
“So was my grandmother.”
“Yes.”
“So was yours?”
Nathaniel looked toward the window.
“My father was not afraid.”
“You told me kings aren’t permitted weakness.”
“That is fear.”
Nathaniel thought.
Maybe.
Rowena leaned against him.
“People do terrible things because they think fear gives them permission.”
Nathaniel touched her hair.
“Will you forgive Agnes?”
“I don’t know.”
“That is allowed.”
She looked up.
“You don’t think I should because she’s my grandmother?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
He smiled faintly.
Then serious.
“Gabriel wants to speak with you.”
“No.”
“I agree.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
Rowena raised an eyebrow.
“I expected an argument.”
“I am improving.”
The next morning, Gabriel escaped.
Not alone.
Severin disappeared too.
Three guards were found unconscious.
One dead.
The prison tunnel had been opened from outside.
Nathaniel’s reclaimed kingdom still contained traitors.
Worse, Gabriel stole one thing from the royal vault.
The Moon Crown.
The ancient artifact used during coronation.
Without it, Nathaniel could rule.
But he could not complete the full bond between king and mountain.
Elara entered the council chamber.
“There’s more.”
Nathaniel looked up.
“What?”
“Gabriel is heading east.”
“Toward?”
“Sector Four.”
Rowena froze.
Her home.
Agnes entered behind Elara.
“He’s going to Silver Hollow.”
Nathaniel frowned.
“Silver Hollow was destroyed.”
Agnes shook her head.
“No.”
“Then where?”
She looked at Rowena.
“Under Sector Four.”
Everything connected.
The old tunnels.
The Grey Market.
The city built over forgotten ruins.
Agnes continued.
“Silver Hollow was never destroyed. It was buried.”
Rowena held the copper coin.
“What is there?”
“The original Queenmaker altar.”
Nathaniel understood.
Gabriel had the Moon Crown.
If he reached the ancient altar with Severin…
“What can he do?”
Agnes’s face became grave.
“Sever the mountain from the Ashcroft bloodline.”
Nathaniel stared.
“And attach it to his?”
“Yes.”
“Without a Queenmaker?”
Agnes looked at Rowena.
“He has Queenmaker blood.”
Rowena’s stomach dropped.
“Mine?”
Agnes nodded.
“When Severin held me, he took it.”
Nathaniel rose.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Gabriel had crown.
Blood.
Knowledge.
If he reached Silver Hollow first, the throne could be stolen permanently.
Nathaniel looked at Rowena.
“We return to your city.”
She nodded.
To the place where she bought him.
To Vincent.
To her father’s grave.
To the beginning.
Nathaniel took her hand.
“This ends there.”
Rowena looked at their joined fingers.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No?”
May you like
She met his eyes.
“It begins there.”
