POV: Amethyst
The air in the Palace dungeons was thick with the smell of old iron and damp earth. It was a place designed to hold the enemies of the Crown, but as I walked down the spiral stairs, the Moon Blade a cool weight against my thigh, I felt like I was walking through a graveyard of my family’s history.
I wasn't just thinking about Alaric. I was thinking about my father, Jessie Walker. For my entire life, I had known him as a man of quiet, unbreakable patience. Now I understand why.
He hadn't known he was royalty. My great-uncle, Henry James Walker, had been murdered by Joseph Conrad before my father was even born. When Joseph seized the Wildfire Pack, he didn't just kill the Alpha; he enslaved the survivors into a permanent, soul-crushing silence. My father grew up as a "Beta"
