Chapter 4 The Forgotten Realm

Scott's legs felt like lead. The forest around him pulsed with unfamiliar energy-colors too bright, shadows too deep. Every sound buzzed in his bones. He took a shaky breath.

"This isn't real," he muttered. "This isn't real."

But the armored man remained kneeling before him, unmoving.

"Who are you?" Scott asked, his voice rough with disbelief.

"I am Caelum, First Guardian of Solarex," the man replied. "And you, Your Highness, are the heir we thought we lost."

Scott's stomach twisted. "I'm not a prince. I'm just a kid from-"

Caelum raised a gauntleted hand. "You were hidden for your protection. The moment your purity held through your seventeenth year, the seal broke. The magic recognizes you now."

Scott stepped back. "Purity? What is this, some fantasy chastity quest?"

Caelum didn't smile. "Your bloodline was cursed by the Betrayer King. Only a prince untainted by corruption could reclaim the throne. Had you... surrendered yourself before your eighteenth cycle, you'd have been lost to us forever."

Scott's mind reeled. All the teasing from Max and Jamie, all the pressure-they didn't know they were joking about his fate.

"Why now?" he asked.

"Because the Veil is thinning. Shadows cross into your world. You've already felt them watching."

Scott's memory jolted-the voice in the hallway, the whispers, the way his reflection had blinked too late the night before. His skin crawled.

"Someone's been trying to stop you," Caelum continued. "They're still trying."

Suddenly, the air behind Scott cracked like lightning. A ripping sound echoed through the trees. A figure emerged from the breach-hooded, draped in smoke.

"Get behind me," Caelum barked, drawing a massive black-bladed sword.

The figure raised a hand. The forest dimmed. Scott felt something grip his heart-cold fingers wrapping around it like a cage.

"Give him to me," the figure rasped. "The boy does not belong."

"I belong wherever I choose," Scott said, surprising even himself.

The figure hissed.

Caelum charged.

Steel clashed. Magic surged. Trees exploded into splinters. Scott ran for cover, heart hammering, but the smoke found him-wrapped around his ankles, whispering lies into his ears.

*"They will betray you."

"You were never meant to rule."

"You are just a scared virgin boy playing prince."*

"Get out of my head!" he shouted, clutching his skull.

And then something *awoke*.

A spark inside him. Ancient and wild. A heat unfurling in his chest. His hands glowed with golden fire, and with a scream, he flung it forward.

The smoke recoiled, screeching, and vanished into the void.

Caelum stood over the fallen figure, blood on his blade.

"You've awakened it," he said, turning to Scott. "The royal flame. It lives in you."

Scott dropped to his knees, panting. "I don't understand any of this."

"You don't have to yet. You just have to survive."

He helped Scott up and pointed toward a glowing mountain in the distance.

"Your training begins there. At the Temple of Cinders."

Scott looked toward the mountain. It felt like the edge of everything he'd ever known.

And the beginning of something he couldn't yet name.

---

Scott stumbled after Caelum as the last of the smoke evaporated into the air. His chest still burned from where the magic had burst out of him. His hands were trembling-not from fear anymore, but from power. Power he didn't understand.

"What just happened to me?" he asked, breathless.

"You accessed your core flame," Caelum said, sheathing his sword. "It's the bloodgift of your line. Untamed, unpredictable... and, if not mastered, dangerous."

Scott looked down at his hands, the faint glow fading from his fingertips. "That came out of *me*? I've never even lit a campfire without help."

"You weren't supposed to until now." Caelum turned, his silver armor gleaming despite the dark canopy above. "The seal was strong. Your memories, your identity, everything tied to your birthright-it was buried."

Scott's head throbbed. "So what now? I just leave everything behind? My parents? Max and Jamie? My life?"

Caelum hesitated. "Those you called parents were guardians. Watchers of the Gate. They loved you, yes. But their duty was to protect the world from discovering what you were. What *you* could become."

Scott felt like the ground was shifting beneath him. His entire life-a lie?

"Why me?" he whispered. "Why *me* out of everyone?"

Caelum's eyes softened. "Because you're the last."

Before Scott could ask more, a deep rumble echoed through the forest. Birds scattered. The trees shook. Caelum turned sharply, drawing his sword again.

"They've found us again," he said. "We need to move."

The forest began to warp around them, twisting unnaturally. Shadows peeled off tree trunks, forming hooded shapes. Eyes gleamed in the dark-red, hungry.

Scott backed up instinctively. "What *are* those?"

"Wraiths," Caelum growled. "Sent by the Hollow Crown. They've sensed your awakening. And they'll do anything to stop you from reaching the Temple."

The first shadow lunged-and Caelum met it mid-air, steel flashing. But they kept coming. Dozens. Then more. Scott froze-until one reached for him.

"Fight, boy!" Caelum shouted.

Scott raised his hands, but the magic didn't come. His heart raced, panic building. The shadow's claws swiped for his chest-

Suddenly, a loud howl split the air.

A *white wolf*, massive and spectral, leapt from the treeline and tackled the wraith midair, ripping through the shadow with glowing fangs.

"What the hell?!" Scott gasped.

The wolf growled, turned-and looked *right* at him. Its eyes were the same golden hue that had burned in Scott's hands.

"I think it's on *our* side," Scott muttered.

The wolf snapped its head toward the remaining shadows. More glowing wolves emerged, forming a circle around Scott. One by one, they lunged, tearing through the darkness like fire through paper.

Caelum stood, panting. "They've answered the call of your blood. The royal beasts are bound to your will."

Scott blinked. "Wait. *I* summoned them?"

"You didn't," Caelum said. "Not intentionally. But they've sensed the balance tipping. The prince has returned."

Thunder cracked above them, but it wasn't rain that followed-it was a tear in the sky. A swirling vortex of dark blue and black opened above the forest, and something began to descend. Something winged. Something massive.

Caelum's voice dropped. "We have to run. *Now*."

Scott turned, the wolves flanking him as Caelum led the way through the trees. Behind them, the winged beast landed with a ground-shaking roar, its eyes burning like dying suns.

As they ran, Scott heard whispers again-faint but growing louder.

**"Your blood betrays you."

"You are not strong enough."

"Turn back. Leave the flame behind."**

But he kept going. Not because he believed in himself yet. Not because he understood anything.

But because something inside him refused to stop.

Whatever was coming next, he was no longer the ordinary boy who once wished for something *more*.

He was becoming the very thing the world had forgotten.

A prince reborn.

And soon... the realm would remember.

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