Page 174 of The Crown's Awakening
We begin to move, but he pauses after a few steps, his attention shifting back to me. “I dine at the same time every evening,” he says, as though the thought has only just occurred to him, though nothing about him suggests forgetfulness. “You are always welcome. With or without Colsar.”
Something in the way he says it makes it clear this is not a formality.
I incline my head. “Thank you.”
He studies me a moment longer, as if ensuring I understand what has been given, then turns and continues forward.
The shift happens without warning. One step forward and everything changes. The structure remains, the same walls and the same air, but something is different, offset in a way I feel before I understand it. I turn and see it.
The throne room. Clear. Close enough to touch. People moving within it, voices carrying faintly, and not one of them looking toward us.
"We are still inside the palace," I say.
"Yes," Colsar answers. "And no."
"This is the hidden kingdom."
It stretches beyond what I can fully take in, corridors layered alongside others, rooms folded into each other in ways that should not exist. We walk and pass through thresholds I do not feel, the hallway shifting subtly, doors lining the walls. Saurin is guided to a chamber beside ours without question.
Inside, everything is prepared. A bed large enough for all of us, bassinets placed close beside it and within reach. Colsar does not pause.
"Send someone," he says. "Now."
The attendants move immediately and a healer arrives within moments, this time without any quick assessment. Her hands move with purpose, undoing the bandages, examining fully, pressing and measuring and understanding the damage beneath the surface. I feel every part of it, the strain and the weakness and the truth of what my body has been holding together through sheer necessity.
"You should not have traveled," she says quietly.
"And yet I did," I answer.
Something almost like approval moves through her expression. "We will fix what we can."
Colsar stays beside the bed, his attention fixed and unmoving as she works. When she finishes adjusting the bandages she steps back.
"She will hold," she says. "But she must rest."
"I will," I say.
Colsar's gaze shifts to mine and for a moment he does not move.
"You should go," I say quietly.
His jaw tightens.
"She is safe here," the healer adds.
He exhales once and nods. "I will not be long." He leans down, his hand brushing my face and then the children, adjusting them without thinking, and then he straightens and turns and leaves.
The door closes behind him.
For the first time since any of this began, he is not here.
CHAPTER 51
The Visitor
Colsar does not go far. The corridors shift as he moves, familiar and altered at once, the hidden kingdom giving way in quiet layers until the space opens into something more direct and more exposed.
The Sovereign is waiting.
