The Speaker vanished into mist, but the mark they left on the palace grounds a sigil of roses encircling a crown remained. The Black Rose Pact had retreated... but not forever.
Lucien carried Aurelia to their private chamber, brushing his fingers against the place where the illusion blade had struck her.
"You scared me," he whispered.
She smiled faintly. "You scare me every time you look at me like I'm your whole world."
"Because you are."
They slept that night in silence, but their dreams were anything but quiet. For far away, in the Roman mountains, the Pact's High Priestess whispered into a black flame:
"She passed the trials. She carries the Key. Let the old blood be awakened."