(Aria’s POV)

The sea smelled of salt and storm. Waves lapped against the pale stretch of sand, leaving silver traces of foam in their wake. Alec walked beside me, his boots dangling from his hand, the other tucked behind his back as if he didn’t know what to do with it. For once, he wasn’t trying to outshine the world with some smirk or clever remark. He was quiet—almost thoughtful—as the wind tugged at his dark hair.

We had found a rare moment of peace here, away from the eyes that judged and the dangers that hunted. I let the water wash over my toes, cool and grounding. Alec’s shadow fell long across the sand beside mine.

Then, a glint.

Something bobbed in the shallows just ahead, turning lazily in the tide. A bottle—green glass, stoppered with wax. The kind of thing sailors sometimes tossed into the sea for luck.

“Look,” I murmured, pointing.

Alec frowned, striding ahead of me. He waded in up to his ankles, water splashing around his calves as he bent to pull the bottle free. The seal on the wax caught the dying sunlight, and the air around us seemed to still.

A stylized flame. Red-gold.

The crest of Vaelorth.

Alec’s face changed—shuttered, guarded. He wiped sea spray from the glass, his jaw tight as he turned it over in his hands.

“Someone sent this,” I said, the unease in my chest growing sharp.

He didn’t answer. Not at first. He only studied the seal, thumb brushing over it like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to break it open or hurl it back into the sea.

When his gaze finally lifted to mine, there was something raw flickering in it. Something that made my stomach twist.

“It’s from her,” he said at last. His voice was low, strained.

“Your mother?”

He nodded once, stiffly. The name seemed to hang unspoken between us, heavier than any tide: Seraphine Caereth.

The wind picked up, scattering salt into the air, tugging at my hair. I didn’t reach for the bottle, though every part of me wanted to. I wasn’t sure if the message inside would change everything—or destroy it.

“Are you going to open it?” I asked.

Alec stared at the bottle a moment longer, his grip tightening around the glass until I thought it might shatter.

Then he whispered, almost to himself, “I don’t know if I want to know what she has to say.”

(Alec’s POV)

The wax cracked beneath my thumb. A hiss of air escaped the bottle as if the sea itself had been holding its breath.

Aria watched me from the shore, arms folded, her eyes sharp as stormlight. She didn’t trust this—not the bottle, not me, not the mother whose crest burned into the wax like a brand. And maybe she was right not to.

I tugged the parchment free, water-spotted but intact. My pulse thudded hard in my throat as I unrolled it.

Her handwriting. Precise, elegant, the strokes of a woman who never wasted motion or words.

My son, my flame.

You stray further from your duty with each passing day. Do not forget where your loyalty lies. The girl beside you is dangerous. She is the root of prophecy, the seed of ruin. For Vaelorth to endure, she must not.

Kill her, Alec. Do this, and you will return to me not as a child, but as my heir.

The words blurred for a moment, salt stinging my eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was the sea spray or something far worse.

Aria shifted closer. “Well?” she asked, suspicion coiled in her voice. “What does it say?”

I rolled the parchment tight, too quickly, forcing my jaw to stay hard, unreadable. The taste of iron pressed against my tongue—I hadn’t realized I’d bitten the inside of my cheek.

“It’s nothing,” I lied, sliding the scroll back into the bottle. My fingers felt clumsy, heavy. “Just… another reminder from her.”

Her brow furrowed. I could tell she didn’t believe me, not entirely. But she let it go, turning her gaze back to the sea. The wind tossed her hair across her face, and for a breath I almost reached out to tuck it away. Almost.

The bottle was cold in my hand, colder than the ocean around us. My mother’s command echoed in my skull like a curse.

Kill her.

But as Aria walked beside me, the surf brushing at her ankles and her eyes steady on the horizon, I knew there wasn’t a blade in all the realms I could raise against her.

Not now.

Not ever.