Chapter 35 - The Choice No King Could MakeThe shadow retreated into the royal chapel.
Ethan and Rowan pursued it through corridors filled with broken glass.
Queen Eleanor followed, carrying the hourglass.
King Aldric, wounded but conscious, ordered his guards to evacuate the castle.
Inside the chapel, the twelve ancient bells began ringing together.
Each strike made Ethan's wrist burn.
Rowan stopped beneath a stained-glass window.
"This is where the first doorway opened."
Ethan stared at the black crown.
"Why does it want one of us?"
Rowan answered quietly.
"The passage cannot stay open without someone holding it."
"Like a prisoner?"
"Like a lock."
Ethan thought of his father in Chicago.
He thought of his mother waiting for him.
He refused to believe the only solution was sacrificing someone.
"What if we break the crown?"
Rowan shook his head.
"It's connected to the doorway."
"Then we break both."
Eleanor stepped forward.
"You don't understand. If the doorway collapses, every person taken from another time could vanish."
Ethan stared at her.
Including his father.
Including himself.
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
The queen had no answer.
Suddenly, King Aldric entered the chapel.
He carried no sword.
Only a small wooden box.
"I found this in Eleanor's chambers."
Inside lay a photograph.
A real photograph.
Not a painting.
Not a drawing.
Ethan recognized the image instantly.
It showed his father standing beside a house in Chicago.
But beside Daniel was a younger King Aldric.
And behind them stood Eleanor.
All three were smiling.
Ethan stared at the photograph.
The date printed beneath it was impossible.
It was taken twelve years before his birth.
King Aldric looked at him.
"I remember now."
Ethan whispered, "Remember what?"
Aldric's eyes filled with tears.
"Your father wasn't sent away."
He turned the photograph over.
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On the back were six handwritten words.
WE ALL CAME FROM YOUR WORLD.
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