Page 50 of Crowned

“Well?” Reef asks, his tone clipped, tension rippling beneath the surface.

I shut the door behind me and lean against it, letting the silence linger just long enough to make them uncomfortable. It’s petty, but after the day I’ve had, I deserve this tiny moment of satisfaction.

“Have you been back long?” I ask the prof.

“No. Just got in, we’ve been waiting for you. There’s much to discuss.”

After the not so friendly interruption left, my original date for the evening returned and reluctantly told me what we needed to know.

“It’s worse than we thought,” I say finally, dragging a hand through my hair. “A lot worse.”

Reef stops pacing, his shoulders stiffening. Cove’s drumming stops. Even Vance’s calm mask falters, his brow furrowing ever so slightly.

I move toward the table, dropping into the chair across from Cove. “The Shadow Legion have a direct line into Aerwyna’s inner circle. My contact confirmed it – they’ve been feeding intel to the Shikari for months.”

“That’s not news,” Cove snaps, his voice sharp enough to cut and completely out of character for him. I raise my brows in shock, but I guess we’re all under pressure here, battling an unknown enemy and racing against an invisible timer. “We’ve known there’s a mole for weeks. What we need is a name.”

“And now we have one,” I shoot back, pulling a crumpled scrap of parchment from my pocket and tossing it onto the table.

Cove snatches it up, his eyes scanning the words. His jaw tightens, and he throws the paper down like it’s burned him. “No. That can’t be right.”

“What?” Reef strides over, grabbing the parchment. His eyes widen as he reads. “You’re joking.”

“I wish I was,” I mutter, slumping back in my chair. “But it makes sense, doesn’t it? Who else would have access to everything the Shikari know? Who else could get that close without raising suspicion?”

Vance finally speaks, his voice calm but laced with an edge of steel. “One of the Elders.”

Reef’s hand tightens around the parchment, crumpling it further. “This is insane. The Elders have been the backbone of Aerwyna for centuries. If they’ve turned?—”

“Not all of them,” I interrupt. “Just one. At least, that’s what my contact believes. They’re not certain, but the evidence points to someone high up. Someone who’s been sabotaging us from within.”

The room falls silent, the weight of the revelation settling over us like a shroud.

“We need to act on this,” Cove says finally, his voice low but firm. “If there’s even a chance this is true, we can’t afford to sit on it.”

“And do what?” Reef snaps, his frustration bubbling over. “Accuse an Elder without proof? You know what that’ll do – it’ll tear Aerwyna apart.”

“We’ll get proof,” Vance says, his calm demeanor back in place. “Quietly. Carefully. The last thing we need is panic.”

I nod, grateful for his level-headedness. “My contact’s working on getting us more information. But we can’t wait too long. The Shadow Legion’s planning something big. They’re moving faster than we anticipated, and if we don’t figure this out soon...”

“They’ll rip Aerwyna apart,” Reef finishes, his voice grim.

The room lapses into silence again, each of us lost in our own thoughts. It’s Vance who breaks it, his gaze fixed on me.

“Did your contact mention anything else? Any specifics about the Shadow Legion’s plans?”

I hesitate, my mind flashing back to the meeting. The dimly lit room, the whispered words, the tension so thick I could barely breathe. “They mentioned a target,” I say slowly. “Something the Legion’s been focusing on. But they didn’t have details. Just…something about the celestial alignment. It always comes back to the stars.”

Vance’s expression darkens, and I know he’s already piecing it together in his head.

“We’ll need to investigate,” he says, his tone leaving no room for argument. “Discreetly. If the celestial alignment is involved, this could be bigger than any of us realised.”

Reef lets out a harsh breath, running a hand through his hair. “Great. Just what we needed. Another ticking clock.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Cove says, his voice soft. “We always do.”

His words are meant to be reassuring, but they only serve to underscore the gravity of the situation.

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