the timid bride

# Chapter 82 – The Masked Betrayer

The palace was no longer just a place of rule—it had become a maze of questions. Whispers. Watchful eyes. Zara felt it with every step she took. There was someone close. Someone playing both sides.

The Circle of Fire had been established just three days ago, and already it had uncovered two more names tied to the Black Ledger. But the deeper they dug, the more they saw signs of someone tipping off suspects before the royal guards could reach them.

Someone was leaking from within.

---

Damon arrived before dawn, pale and grim. "The prisoner we held last night—merchant Vaelis—was found dead in his cell."

Zara rose instantly. "Cause?"

"Poison," he said. "Hidden in the bread."

She slammed her fist on the armrest of her chair. "That means the kitchen staff is compromised. Or the guards. Or both."

Amara entered next. "We found this in his cell." She held up a scrap of parchment. On it was the seal of the House of Trin.

"They're getting bolder," Amara said. "And it means they know we're closing in."

Zara's eyes darkened. "Then it's time we set a trap."

---

She spent the rest of the morning laying the bait. She wrote a false decree and had it slipped into the Black Ledger: a fabricated plan to transfer the remainder of the rebellion's gold from the eastern vaults to the palace treasury.

If the traitor truly had access, they would act to intercept it.

By nightfall, Damon and Amara took up concealed positions around the vault while Zara waited in the central courtyard. The torchlight flickered. The wind howled through the archways. Every minute dragged like a century.

Then a figure moved—draped in a servant's cloak.

They slipped past the arch, through a corridor known only to Zara's inner circle. She gave a single signal. Damon followed.

The intruder was fast—clearly trained. They bypassed guards with calculated steps, descending into the vault corridor and approaching the locked treasury door.

Damon tackled them before they could reach the final gate.

A brief struggle. A knife clattered. A hood torn away.

It was not a servant.

It was one of the palace stewards.

A woman named Lira. Quiet. Efficient. Loyal—Zara had thought.

Amara bound her hands and pulled her into the light. Zara stood over her, stunned.

"Why?" Zara asked. "You ate at my table. You kissed my hand when I spared your brother."

Lira's voice was cold. "Because your mercy is poison. You spared traitors and called it justice. But justice demands fire."

Zara's eyes narrowed. "Then burn with it."

---

The traitor was imprisoned in the deepest cell beneath the palace, but Zara didn't rest. She ordered every corridor swept. Every servant questioned. Every lock changed.

"You can't purge the whole kingdom," Damon warned.

"No," Zara said. "But I can cut the rot until the tree is strong again."

She returned to the archives, where Thorne waited.

"There's something you need to see," he said.

He led her to a sealed chamber behind the oldest vault, where a carved phoenix crest had been hidden beneath a false wall.

"This was built during Queen Iliana's reign," Thorne said. "But no record of it exists."

Inside was a hidden study. Maps. Letters. And a second ledger—not of treason, but of loyalists who had sacrificed everything to preserve the realm in secret.

Zara picked up a scroll.

Her father's name was on it.

A quiet resistance. One he never spoke of. One that had tried to stop Corshal before the coup ever began.

Tears stung her eyes. "He wasn't silent because he was weak. He was silent because he was protecting something."

Thorne nodded. "And now, it's yours to finish."

---

Later, in the courtyard beneath the phoenix banner, Zara addressed the Circle of Fire.

"There are those among us who wear masks," she said. "But let it be known—we now have a mirror. One that sees past bloodlines, beyond gold. This is no longer the kingdom of hidden names."

She looked to the people gathered: nobles, merchants, common folk, and soldiers. All equal.

"This is the kingdom of the Flame."

And for the first time in weeks, they cheered.