Chapter 205

OLIVIA’S POV The decision from the Royals arrived sooner than I had anticipated—but not sooner than I had prepared for. I was in the kitchen, my fingers still damp from rinsing the morning herbs James had brought in, when the air in the adjoining room shifted. It wasn’t the kind of shift you hear or see—not a sound, not a gust of wind. It was a disturbance in something deeper, older. A silent warping of the invisible threads that held the world together. I wiped my hands on the cloth by the sink and walked toward it. By the time I reached the living room, the ripple had already passed. In its wake, a scroll lay on the edge of the wooden table beside the window—glowing faintly in the gold-silver light of early morning. The air around it shimmered with residual magic, like the echo of a song long after the music has stopped. I didn’t need to guess who had sent it. Gold-pressed parchment, thick and pristine, sealed with the insignia of the Royal Court—an eagle’s wings stretched protective