---
The smoke hadn't cleared from the ruined chapel when the world began to twist.
Kael had walked no more than a mile before it hit him, a tearing behind the eyes, a vibration in his bones, like the book's voice screaming through time.
He staggered into a thicket of dead trees and collapsed to his knees.
The sky blinked.
And the vision began.
---
He stood in a throne room carved from black marble and pulsing veins of crimson crystal.
Tall pillars etched with vampire runes loomed above him.
At the far end sat a throne of bone and velvet, unoccupied.
Around it stood nobles, sharp-eyed, pale-skinned, cloaked in elegance and silence.
The Vampire Court.
He recognized none of them.
And yet, their blood felt like his own.
Suddenly, the vision narrowed.
At the throne's base stood a woman.
Not dressed in power, but in sorrow.
> "He must live," she said. "Even if it costs us the throne. Even if it costs me."
The nobles argued.
Some shouted.
One reached for his blade.
She turned her back to them all.
> "Seal his memories. Hide his blood. Burn the name if you must."
"Just… let him be a boy."
---
The vision shifted violently.
Kael screamed as fire swallowed the marble.
Nobles burned.
Ash rose like snow.
And through it all, he saw the woman again, holding a bundle close to her chest as she bled from the throat.
> "Kael…" she whispered.
> "Live."
---
He snapped awake, gasping.
He was still in the thicket.
Still surrounded by silence.
But his hands… were shaking.
And in the dirt beside him, carved by something unseen, were three words in ancient vampire script:
> "The Court Remembers."
---
The book did not glow.
It didn't need to.
Kael knew now.
He wasn't just a mistake or an orphan.
He was the heir they burned their future to protect.
And someone, maybe more than one, wanted that future never to rise again.
---
End of Chapter 28
---