The Hidden Crown

The Moon-Marked Queen

Chapter 1: The Moon-Marked Queen

In the flicker of a full moon, time bent. A violet crack shimmered through the air, and she fell — not with fear, but with quiet rage.

Lyra landed in the past, in a realm where her name was not celebrated but silenced. Her family, once the caretakers of the crown, had turned her into a ghost — hidden away in silk walls and golden chains, never spoken of, never allowed to rise. She was the true queen of elarian, but to the world, she was just a forgotten girl in a backroom kitchen, pouring wine and wiping secrets off silver.

They told her to stay hidden. They told her she didn’t deserve the throne. But they didn’t know — Lyra had already built her own empire, in silence and shadows. Through mirrors that whispered, and a raven that carried her scrolls, she ruled a world beyond their reach. And none knew, not even the guards outside her door.

Then one night, he came.

Kael Veyrion, the ruthless, devilishly calm heir to a mysterious criminal kingdom — a dark prince with bloodied rings and eyes like dusk. He arrived in Elarian under disguise, searching for the lost queen, sent by ancient prophecies and a throne only she could awaken.

Lyra met him first in the market, cloaked and unnoticed, selling enchanted glass. He stared too long. She smiled too little.

He kept returning. She kept deflecting.

But fate, cruel and clever, twisted their meetings. Rain-drenched alleys, near-death escapes, slow dances beneath shadowed moons — all the things that could make enemies fall in love.

They argued. They teased. They collided like storm and fire. Neither knew who the other really was.

Until Kael found the hidden map behind Lyra’s enchanted painting. Until he saw the sigil — the moon-marked rose — on her spine as she healed in his arms.

“You… you’re the Queen of Elarian.”

Lyra backed away, heart pounding. And suddenly, she saw him for who he was too — the same name etched on the bounty scrolls she intercepted as a queen.

“And you… you’re Kael. The outlaw. The killer king.”

Their world cracked.

Anger. Betrayal. Fire in her eyes. Tears in his.

She turned away. She refused him.

“I was born to rule, not to be fooled.”

He didn’t stop her.

For days, Elarian held its breath as its Queen disappeared. Kael returned to his fortress, haunted and hollow.

But love, true love, never dies quietly.

One morning, Kael woke up to silence… and a crown resting on his pillow. Beside it, a single note:

> “Even Queens can change fate. Meet me where the violets bloom. I’ll rule beside you — if you’re ready for a kingdom built on truth.”

She stood beneath the ruins of time, wearing her crown with pride, her eyes soft now.

He knelt — not because he had to, but because love is always a choice.