Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother Chapter 132

Kaelen’s POV

The wind scread past my ears as the griffin banked hard over the capital’s rooftops. Below, the city was a blur of stone and smoke and aningless movent. I didn’t see any of it.

Alex paced beneath my skin. Not restless. Not irritable. Frantic. Like a wolf locked in a cage while fire ate the walls.

She’s not answering.

I pressed my thumb into the communication stone so hard the edges bit into flesh. It pulsed. Once. Twice. Three tis.

Dead silence.

Again.

Dead silence.

Again.

Nothing. Just... absence. A void where my wife’s voice should have been.

Six tis. I’d tried six tis since leaving the palace, and every single attempt dissolved into the sa hollow quiet. The magical connection wasn’t just weak. It was severed. Deliberately, completely severed.

Elara never severed the connection of her stone.

Alex snarled inside my skull, a sound like grinding tal. My grip on the griffin’s harness tightened until the leather groaned.

Think. Think clearly.

She said she loved . She made promise to co ho. She told Valerius would be waiting.

Valerius.

The griffin’s wings snapped as I yanked the reins eastward, adjusting course toward the academy instead of the residence. I needed to confirm—

A pulse hit my palm. Incoming transmission. I nearly crushed the stone answering it.

"Your Majesty Nightfire." Not Elara. A woman’s voice—asured, professional, with the careful cadence of soone used to speaking to difficult parents. Valerius’s tutor. "I apologize for the intrusion, but it’s getting late in the afternoon, and Valerius is still here waiting. Lady Nightfire inford the academy this morning that you would be handling pickup today. We weren’t notified of any schedule change through the usual channels, so I wanted to confirm—"

My blood turned to ice.

"She told you I was picking him up."

"Yes, Your Majesty. She sent word first thing this morning. Valerius has been quite excited about it—he’s been telling the other children all day that his father is coming." A careful pause. "Was there... a miscommunication?"

Elara had never once changed the pickup arrangent without telling first. She was ticulous about these things. Every schedule, every transition, every handoff was coordinated with military precision because that was who she was—a woman who left nothing to chance.

Unless she was making sure she wouldn’t be the one at ho when I arrived.

"I’ll be there in a few monts," I said.

"Of course, Your Majesty. He’s perfectly safe. We’re in the east garden."

I banked the griffin so sharply it shrieked in protest.

The academy’s spires rose through the treeline within monts. I brought the griffin down hard on the visitors’ platform, already swinging off before the beast had fully settled. My boots hit stone and I was moving, cutting through the manicured corridors, past startled attendants who pressed themselves against walls as I passed.

The east garden was sun-drenched and peaceful. Flower beds in neat rows. A fountain murmuring at the center. And there, sitting cross-legged on a stone bench with a picture book open across his knees, was my son.

Dark gold eyes lifted to mine. His whole face split open with joy.

"Daddy!"

He scrambled off the bench and launched himself at . I caught him—scooped him up, one arm under his legs, the other around his back—and held him tight. His small arms locked around my neck. He slled like chalk dust and grass and the faintly sweet soap Elara used on his hair every morning.

"Hey, buddy." My voice ca out steadier than I felt. Barely. "Sorry I’m late."

"That’s okay." He pulled back just enough to look at , those golden eyes—my eyes—bright with trust. "Mommy said you were coming today. She told this morning before she dropped off. She said it was a special surprise."

A special surprise.

My stomach dropped.

"Did Mommy say anything else?"

Valerius scrunched his nose, thinking hard. "She hugged really, really long. Longer than normal. And she said..." He trailed off, brow furrowing. "She said to be a good boy for Daddy. And that she loves more than all the stars."

Alex went deathly still inside .

"Can we go ho now?" Valerius asked. "I want to show Lyra the picture I drew."

"Yeah, buddy." I hoisted him higher on my hip. "We’re going ho right now."

The flight back was the longest stretch of my life. Valerius sat in front of on the griffin, chattering about his drawing—a wolf with silver fur and a tiny wolf beside it—while I kept one arm locked around his waist and the other on the reins. My jaw ached from how hard I was clenching it.

She hugged him longer than normal. She told him to be good for Daddy.

Who says that to their child on a regular morning?

Soone who doesn’t think there will be another one.

The residence materialized below. I brought the griffin down fast, handed the reins to the stablehand without a word, and carried Valerius through the front entrance.

"Ela?"

My voice echoed through the foyer. Off the marble floors, up the staircase, into nothing.

"Baby?"

Silence. The kind that has weight. The kind that fills a space like water, pressing against the walls, swallowing sound.

The nanny appeared from the side corridor, wiping her hands on her apron. Her face was calm. Untroubled. Completely oblivious.

"Your Majesty! You’re ho early. And you’ve got the little prince—oh, Lady Nightfire ntioned you’d be picking him up today."

"Where is she?"

"She went out earlier this afternoon, Your Majesty. Said she had so errands to attend to. She spent the whole morning with Lyra—feeding her, singing to her, just the sweetest thing. They had the loveliest ti together." The nanny smiled fondly. "She seed in wonderful spirits."

Wonderful spirits.

The woman who kissed this morning like it was the last ti. The woman whose laugh rang hollow as a cracked bell. The woman who told her son to be good for Daddy like she was handing him off permanently.

Wonderful spirits.

"Did she say when she’d be back?"

The nanny’s smile faltered. "No, Your Majesty. I assud... I assud it wouldn’t be long."

I didn’t wait to hear another word. I set Valerius down on his feet and bolted for the stairs, taking them three at a ti. I could hear Valerius’s small footsteps rushing up the marble steps right behind , trying to keep pace.

The hallway stretched before , torchlight flickering against familiar walls. Our bedroom door was closed. I shoved it open.

Everything looked normal.

The bed was made. The curtains were drawn back. Her robe hung on its usual hook. Her slippers sat by the wardrobe. Everything was exactly in its place, completely normal.

A sound ca from the adjoining room—the nursery. Soft, rhythmic breathing. I moved toward it on legs that didn’t feel entirely mine.

Lyra lay in her crib, sleeping peacefully. One tiny fist was curled near her cheek. Her silver hair—Elara’s hair—caught the late afternoon light from the window like spun moonlight. She was warm. Content. Safe.

But tucked beside her, carefully placed against the folded blanket where Lyra’s small body wouldn’t crush it, was a piece of folded parchnt.

My na was written across the front in Elara’s precise, elegant hand.

Kaelen.

I reached into the crib, my fingers closing around the parchnt. As I held the letter that felt impossibly heavy in my grasp, my hands trembled violently.