Chapter 26 - The Boy Who Grew OldThe stranger called himself Rowan.
He claimed to have arrived in the kingdom eight years earlier.
Like Ethan, he had fallen through a storm.
Like Ethan, he had been twelve.
And like Ethan, he had possessed the face of the king's dead son.
"Eight years?" Ethan asked.
Rowan nodded.
"But you look older."
"Time doesn't move the same way here."
King Aldric stared at the young man.
"Why have I never seen you?"
Rowan laughed without amusement.
"You did."
Aldric shook his head.
"No."
"You locked me in this chamber."
The king staggered.
"I would never do that."
Rowan stepped closer.
"That's what you said when I begged you to let me go."
Ethan studied the two men.
The king appeared genuinely confused.
"Maybe he's lying," Ethan said.
Rowan turned to him.
"Look at the king's right wrist."
Aldric hesitated before revealing an old burn.
The scar resembled a circle divided into twelve parts.
Rowan exposed his own wrist.
The same mark.
Then Ethan pulled back his sleeve.
He had the mark too.
It had appeared after the lightning storm.
Rowan's expression changed.
"You haven't been claimed yet."
"Claimed by what?"
Before Rowan could answer, the ground shook.
A distant horn sounded.
Then a second.
Aldric recognized the warning.
Enemy armies were approaching the capital.
But Rowan did not look surprised.
"They're not coming to conquer the kingdom."
"What do they want?" the king demanded.
Rowan stared at Ethan.
"They're coming to stop him from becoming what I became."
Outside the chamber, armored footsteps echoed down the staircase.
May you like
Someone had followed them.
And the soldiers descending were wearing the queen's forgotten colors.
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