The wooden oak doors opened, revealing a large hexagonal room, lined with many beautiful portraits and precious artifacts. There was a marble dais in the middle, with a cup on top of it, golden flames encasing it in an entrancing glow.

Aila took a step forward, mesmerised. The two men at her side had temporarily slipped from her mind, but when a sharp pain seared down her side and sent her sprawling to the floor, she realised just how low her guard had dropped. Her body cried out in pure pain as it collided with the marble floor.

Kaiden had reached the dais, a hand stretching out to grasp the chalice.

"No!" Aila yelled. She struggled to her feet, freed the dagger at her belt and aimed at the man in front of her, the man she had briefly, almost considered a friend.

Her gaze locked with Kaiden's. She expected fear to flash there, fear that he was outnumbered, two to one. As Kaiden lifted the prize from the dais and as she flung the dagger towards him, she heard Castor yell. She expected him to stop Kaiden, to strike him down where he stood and claim the cup for her.

For Merelia.

Confusion slammed into her as she found herself colliding with the floor again, this time with a heavy weight on top of her. She felt a cool steel press against her throat, and a wry chuckle from the centre of the room.

"Cas, what the hell are you doing?" Aila exclaimed, taking such small breaths so as not to slit her own throat accidentally.

"I guess you kept yourself hidden well after all, little brother," Kaiden said, and shock slammed into Aila as she first registered the smirk in his tone, a voice that was so unlike anything she'd heard from him before.

His words then crashed into her harder than the creature in the first trial could have.

Little brother.

Aila's mouth went dry as she looked to Castor helplessly, wanting him to deny it.

Needing him to deny it.

Instead, she found him wearing an expression she had never seen before. One that didn't look like it belonged on his face.

"I... what?" She murmured, dumbfounded. "You... you're..."

"Kieran Ashwood," the man pinning her down supplied. The friend she'd grown up with, the boy she'd grown to trust and love like her own brother.

Except he wasn't her brother.

"Huh?"

Kieran rolled his eyes. "I am Kieran Ashwood," he spoke slowly, patronisingly. "I am the brother of Kaiden Ashwood, the second heir to the throne of Perador."

"But, no... you don't even look alike!" Aila sputtered, still unable to come to terms with her whole life having been a lie.

Her reeling began to spiral out of control further when before her very eyes, Castor... Kieran, began to shift.

His facial structure changed first, morphing into more sharp features. The same shape as Kaiden's, but with softer and less defined angles. His brown eyes grew lighter, swirling until they resembled unique Ashwood eyes, an ocean that carried every shade of blue to it's very depths. His light brown hair also transformed, becoming a dark fluffy black, exactly identical to the hair she had spent many days wanting to run her hands through.

"Huh?" Aila repeated again, questioning whether she had truly witnessed whatever magic had occurred before her eyes.

At this point, her mind started grappling with itself, questioning everything she had ever known and whether she should give up now seeing as the person she had spent the most time with in her whole lifetime was not who he was supposed to be.

Her heart intervened in the battle, reminding her that she had a kingdom to save. A kingdom to save from the two men in front of her now.

Aila raised her head, staring Kieran straight into eyes that were so unfamiliar on him. With as much dignity as she could muster, she folded herself in half and lifted her leg, kicking the back of his head as hard as she could. It didn't dislodge him. If anything, it made him more angry.

He released a low growl. "You're going to regret having done that." He pressed the dagger into Aila's throat, breaking her skin and drawing a thin line of blood.

"Kieran, let her go."

Aila ignored Kaiden, unwilling to meet his eyes after having been turned into a fool. Instead, she met his little brother's eyes, unfamiliar eyes.

"Why do you hate me?" Her voice came out weak, defeated. She perhaps hated that more than the fact that she was currently asking the question to Castor, a man whom she had believed would never hurt her.

Kieran sneered. "I was forced to leave my brother, my family, my home. I was forced to grow up in your kingdom. I was forced to-"

"I never forced you to do any of that," Aila spoke, defiance in her voice. "That was your choice. Believe me, I wish you'd stayed there. I wish I'd never met you," her voice cracked in the last sentence as tears sprang to her eyes.

"It's the war," Kieran lowered his gaze.

"I want to end the war," Aila cut in, pleading with him to listen to her. "You of all people know how much I want-"

"Grow up, Aila. You have too much hope. We don't get closure. Life isn't full of happy endings."

Kai's brother... the shapeshifter...

She had been such a fool.

"Kieran, get off her," Kaiden interrupted. He spoke calmly but there was authority in his tone. As Kieran got to his feet and strode towards his brother's side, Aila's mind was racing.

She had to stop them, but she couldn't move. Her body was numb, fighting the shock of everything that had just happened in the last few minutes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Kieran and Kaiden embrace in a hug, most likely for the first time in years. She saw Kaiden pass the chalice to his brother before telling him to wait outside. Kieran threw Aila a wary glance before leaving.

With the chalice.

Aila struggled to her feet again, her legs protesting with the effort and shaking beneath her weight after the climb. Black spots danced in Aila's vision from the hard contact her head had made with the marble, and her head began to spin faster.

She stumbled forward in a desperate bid to reach him, unsheathing another dagger concealed within her black combat boot as she did so. However she halted suddenly as Kaiden lazily flicked a hand, and a circle of fire surrounded her, reaching so high that anything below his neck wasn't visible.

She reached out but recoiled when her hand was more than twenty centimetres away, frowning at the immense heat that seared her palm.

"Don't do anything you'll regret," Kaiden warned quietly, watching as Aila's brain racked for something, anything, to save herself.

Aila was many things, and though Kaiden's advice appeared sound to her ears, she wasn't about to listen to him. She had to act; he was right there.

She took a few steps back, already having calculated that she would need a run up to be able to leap over the wall of flames. As heat flared against the back of her ankle, and she again assessed the height of the fire, she realised the effort was futile and collapsed to her knees, succumbing to the pain gripping her tightly.

"What was real?" Aila asked quietly, cursing herself for being unable to look Kaiden in the eye.

She thought of the night by the river, the day spent exchanging stories, the time he not only let her ride his horse but also taught her how to do so, the way he calmed her during her panic attack.

"More than you think," Kaiden replied without hesitation. Shock once again rolled over her, and she forced her head up, meeting his intense gaze.

Aila let out a humourless laugh at his response. "Why don't I believe you?"
As her voice cracked, Aila averted her gaze, focusing instead on the patterns of dragons on the marble floor.

"Aila, look at me." Kaiden demanded. She didn't listen to him. Kaiden sighed before repeating himself, this time with a kind of authority that forced Aila to raise her head, much to her own surprise.

Kaiden let his walls crumple, he let her see who he really was, all the emotions he was currently feeling and all the thoughts whirling through his mind, as he said; " I wish things were different. Believe me, hurting you is the last thing I ever want to do. But I have a duty to my kingdom, and I told you once before that I would do anything to save Perador."

And though she really didn't want to, though she knew how damn good of an actor he really was, she found herself believing him, and she hated herself for it.

She didn't respond, letting the floor claim her attention once more. She heard a soft sigh, followed by footsteps and then the sound of a wooden door closing.

She shut her eyes, breathing in deeply. At the moment she didn't care that she was currently in the middle of nowhere, with no resources or way to get home safely, that she had been betrayed by not one, but two people that she had grown to trust.

"I let my kingdom down," she murmured, a small tear escaping from her eyes and falling to the marble floor like an ink splodge on paper.

"Now, now, I'm sure that's not true," an unfamiliar voice flooded her ears, raising her guards back into place.

She lurched up into position, meeting the newcomer with wariness in her features. The fire encircling her had lowered, presumably with the distance the heir had put between them, leaving her able to see the newcomer clearly.

She first noticed his auburn hair, like burnt copper in the midday sun. He would've been the most handsome man she'd ever seen, if not for his eyes, which were the most unusual she had ever come across. They were a fiery shade of red, and the irises were rectangular slits, with only a small black pupil. He was leaning casually against the wall, amusement lining his youthful face. He waved a hand and the flames died out completely.

A spark of hope burst to life in his odd eyes, as he took a step forward, regarding Aila with curiosity and intrigue.

"Hello Aila, I have been waiting a long time to meet you."

Bam! I planned this twist before I even wrote the book lmao.

Just going to take the time to give a couple of shout-outs:

Aasimah1608 I would not have made it this far in the book if it weren't for you, Aasi. I constantly write imagining your reactions to scenes, and then laugh at your comments and thoughts when they come. You have been here since the very beginning of my Wattpad journey, and you have read every single update of this book despite being incredibly busy. I will never be able to thank you enough for your support and friendship. This book, everything I write, is dedicated to you. Always.

Delphi_Arcana I have to give a shout-out to the person who shipped Castor and Kaiden for over half of the book, and then proceeded to think that Castor was a vampire! ;) Lol, I also have to mention that Del correctly predicted that Castor was a shapeshifter, so you have been redeemed. 😜 Thank you so much for your support, your votes, your comments and your friendship.

~ MaddyWilson 💙