Chapter 24 · The Crown's Hidden Door

"Say it." Carson drove the parchment against Evelyn's chest and pinned her to the stone pillar. "Say the name."

"Get your hand off me."

"Not until you do."

The royal seal burned red between them. Her family crest. The crest they'd died under.

Mira stood three feet away, knife at her belt and both arms crossed. "If she says it, the core will broadcast her bloodline through every ward."

"Good," Carson said. "Let the whole city hear."

Evelyn shoved at his wrist. He didn't budge. The parchment crinkled beneath his palm, and her mother's handwriting showed through the thin paper.

The letter she'd hidden for sixteen years.

"They killed my family because of that name," Evelyn said.

"Then use it to stop them killing everyone else."

"You think this is easy?"

"No. I think the walls have minutes left."

Behind him, the core screen pulsed red. A warning crawled across it.

**ROYAL AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.**

Carson lifted the parchment. "I found this in your pack. Your mother's seal. Her signature. She wrote it the night the palace fell."

"You went through my things?"

"You're welcome to stab me after the city survives."

Mira's gaze cut toward the screen. "Carson.