Chapter Twenty-Eight: Froozen & Uneven

Seraphina's heartbeat thundered in her ears as the words echoed through the cavern. The Queen has returned. The weight of those five simple words crashed over her, colder than the dark air pressing in around them. She stood frozen, her breath uneven, her mind scrambling for answers.

Queen? That couldn't be right. She wasn't royalty. She wasn't even real in this world. She was an outsider, a girl who had only ever read about these lands, trapped in a fate that wasn't hers. And yet, the figures before her knelt as if she were their sovereign, their glowing silver eyes gleaming with reverence.

Caius moved closer, his stance tense, his golden gaze flickering with something unreadable. His grip on his weapon tightened, but he didn't strike. He was waiting. Watching.

Seraphina swallowed hard, forcing her voice to work. "You're mistaken."

The figure in the centre lifted its head slightly. Though its face was obscured, Seraphina could feel its stare pierce through her, as if it could see something inside her that she could not. "We do not mistake our queen."

A bitter laugh nearly slipped from her lips, but it died before it could escape. There was no amusement in this moment—only confusion, only dread.

She took a step back, shaking her head. "I don't understand. I'm not—"

"You are," the figure interrupted, its voice steady, certain. "You have returned, and your kingdom awaits."

Kingdom? What kingdom? From what she knew of this world's history, the queen had died decades ago, slain in a rebellion that had torn apart the land. Her entire lineage had been erased, the throne left in the hands of tyrants.

Unless…

A slow, suffocating realization gripped her.

Unless the queen had never truly died.

Unless she was that queen.

Her breath hitched, her vision spinning. No. That's impossible. I was just a reader. I don't belong here.

But deep in her soul, something shifted. It was the same power that had been awakening inside her ever since she arrived in this world, the force she had been fighting to understand. It had called to her in whispers, in dreams, in the way the very air seemed to bend around her.

And now, standing in this cavern, surrounded by kneeling shadows, she felt it stir again.

Caius finally spoke, his voice edged with warning. "Why now?"

The figure's head tilted slightly. "Because the stars have aligned. Because the bloodline calls. Because she has remembered."

Seraphina's fingers curled into fists. "I don't remember anything."

The figure stood slowly, the others following. "You will."

Before she could demand an explanation, the torches lining the cavern walls flared to life once more. The figures were gone. Vanished as if they had never been there, leaving behind only the suffocating weight of their words.

Seraphina turned to Caius, her pulse hammering. "Tell me the truth."

He hesitated.

She grabbed his arm, her nails digging into the fabric of his sleeve. "Tell me."

A muscle in his jaw twitched. Then, finally, he spoke. "The lost queen," he murmured, his golden eyes meeting hers with something close to regret. "Seraphina... they believe it's you."

The ground beneath her felt unsteady as if the world had tilted on its axis. Everything she thought she knew—about this world, about herself—was unravelling. She wasn't just trapped in this story. She was its centre.

And whether she was ready or not, fate had come to claim her. Seraphina's breath came in uneven gasps as the reality of Caius's words settled over her. The lost queen. They believe it's me.

The very idea sent her mind spiralling. She had stepped into this world as an imposter, a reader who had merely followed the story's twists and turns. And yet, these people—these creatures—had knelt before her, had called her their ruler, had spoken of bloodlines and fate as though they were undeniable truths.

Caius watched her carefully, his golden eyes unreadable, but his tension was palpable. He knew something. He had known all along.

Her fingers curled at her sides, her nails pressing into her palms. "How long?" she demanded. "How long have you suspected this?"

Caius exhaled slowly, his gaze never wavering. "Since the first time, you used your power."

Her stomach dropped. She had barely understood what had happened then—just a flicker of something, a raw force that had moved at her command, wild and untamed. She had chalked it up to a quirk of this world, something beyond her control. But had it been something else all along? Is a buried inheritance clawing its way to the surface?

Seraphina shook her head, trying to push back the rising panic. "I don't even remember who I was before this," she said. "I'm just—" She swallowed hard. "I'm just a girl who was supposed to be reading this story, not living in it."

Caius took a slow step forward. "And yet, here you are."

The weight of his words settled heavily on her chest.

She turned away, staring into the shadows of the cavern where the figures had vanished. The air was thick with something unspoken, an ancient presence lingering even after their departure.

Her mind raced, trying to stitch together the missing pieces. If she truly was this lost queen, then why had she been reborn in another world? Why had she lived an entirely different life before waking up here?

Unless… she hadn't died at all.

Unless, somehow, she had been hidden.

A shudder passed through her. Had someone placed her in another world, and allowed her to live a different life until she was ready to return? If that was the case, then whoever had done this… they had waited for this moment. They had known. A wave of dizziness overtook her, and she braced herself against the cold cavern wall. Caius was still watching her, silent, waiting.

She took a deep breath. If she had learned anything since waking up in this world, it was that survival required action. Answers wouldn't simply come to her—she had to chase them down.

She turned back to Caius, her voice steady. "Then I need to find out the truth."

He nodded once as if he had been expecting those words. "And if you don't like what you find?"

Seraphina squared her shoulders. "I'll decide when I get there."

The cavern seemed to hum around them, the air thick with something ancient and unseen. The path ahead was uncertain, shrouded in mystery and danger. But one thing was clear—she was no longer running from this world.

She was about to claim it.