The Dragon King and His Fallen Star novel Chapter 182

Chapter 182 Fading Flame

Chapter 182: Fading Flame

EIRLYS’ POV

I found myself standing in the middle of the training ground-the very place where the two

celestial guardians had crashed the celebration and taken me.

It was eerily silent.

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No clanging of swords. No shouting warriors. No barking commands. Not even the scent of sweat

and steel. Only silence.

My pulse quickened as I turned in a slow circle, searching for anyone-Orryx, Callum, Thorin,

anyone at all-but there was no one.

Panic prickled beneath my skin. I broke into a run. My feet pounded against the dirt, through the open gates, past the courtyard, and toward the palace.

When the garden came into view, I stopped so abruptly that my breath caught in my throat.

The blooms were withering, their petals curling inward as if retreating from the light. The hedges

had browned at the edges, and the fountains stood dry. It was the beginning of spring-my favorite

season. Everything should have been bursting to life, not fading. Yet the air carried the faint scent

of rot and rain that never came.

I swallowed hard, taking a hesitant step closer. Then I looked up.

The Drakemont Palace loomed above me. It should have been gleaming still. Kierygan and the

others had worked night and day to rebuild it into a grander, brighter home.

But what stood before me were dulled spires and walls streaked with cracks. The banners hung in

tatters. Windows were shattered in places, and ivy crawled up the stone like veins reclaiming what

had been forsaken.

My chest tightened. “What happened here?” I whispered.

I had only been gone for hours. A day at most. Two perhaps.

The great doors of the palace groaned as I pushed them open. The air inside had changed too-

cold and stale, stripped of the familiar scent of lavender and freshly baked bread that once drifted

from the kitchens.

My footsteps echoed through the hall, passing faded, tattered tapestries whose colors were smothered beneath layers of dust. I turned a corner-and nearly collided with a young maid carrying a basket of linens.

She gasped, dropping everything. The linens scattered across the floor. Her eyes went wide, her

face draining of color.

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Chapter 182 Fading Flame

“You’re…” she stammered, her trembling hands flying to her mouth. “You’re Queen Eirlys.”

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She tilted her head awkwardly. “Heavens… Apologies, My Queen. I… I just didn’t expect-welcome

back, I mean.”

I nodded slowly. “Thank you,” I said slowly, my voice catching, thick with sudden hope. “I… I’d like to see Kierygan. Where is my mate? Where is the King”

The maid’s lips parted, but only a choked sound escaped. When she finally gathered herself, she whispered, “Of course, My Queen. The King… has been waiting for you.”

Relief flooded me, and the heaviness in my chest began to lift.

The maid, who introduced herself as Mila, hurried to gather her things before motioning for me to follow. I did, my heart thrumming with the anticipation of seeing him again.

But as we moved through the corridors, a gnawing unease took hold. Faces turned toward me, unfamiliar. The guards at their posts weren’t the ones I knew. Even the faint hum of magic that had once pulsed through the palace walls felt… muted. Hollow..

Still, I pushed on. None of it mattered. None of it would matter as long as he was here.

When we reached the end of the corridor, Mila stopped before the tall, carved doors of our

chambers.

The maid turned to me, her expression unreadable, and bowed slightly. “The King is inside,” she said softly, gesturing toward the door.

My hand trembled as I reached for the handle..

I stepped inside the chamber, and the familiar scent hit me-birchwood, smoke, frost. Kierygan.

My heart leapt at the smell, a surge of hope, of home. Yet the air was unusually cold.

My eyes fell on the bed. He was there, lying down. I smiled and hurried forward, letting myself sit on the edge, my fingers brushing the blankets.

But… I froze.

This man… I did not recognize him. His body was frail, stooped with age. Deep lines carved his face. His hair was gray. This was not Kierygan.

My mate-the strong, larger-than-life presence I knew, with hair dark as night and fire in his chest- none of it was here.

My breath caught in my throat as he stirred, opening his eyes.

They were blue. The same piercing blue I knew so well. My chest tightened, tears pricking at the edges of my vision.

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“Kierygan,” I whispered, my voice cracking.

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His eyes widened as I leaned closer, his lips parting as if to speak, but only a faint, hoarse whisper escaped.

“My… star,” he breathed.

I blinked, my chest tightening at the rawness in his voice. He tried to lift a hand toward me, but his

frailty betrayed him; it fell back to the bed, useless.

“Am I… dreaming?” he whispered, blue eyes searching mine with a vulnerability I had never seen.” Are… you really back?”

Tears blurred my vision. I reached up, cupping his lined, cold face in my hands, my fingers tracing the gray strands of his hair. “I’m really back,” I whispered, my voice trembling, tears spilling freely

down my cheeks. “I don’t know how… but I’m really back.”

Unable to hold back the ache in my heart, I pressed my forehead against his chest. The warmth I

remembered was gone, replaced by the thin, fragile beat of a body worn by time. Yet even so, I

could feel the bond between us-the invisible thread that connected us, pulsing still, tethering us

together across all changes.

I lifted my head slowly, letting my gaze meet his. “You’ve changed,” I said softly, pain and confusion mingling in my voice. “Everyone has changed. What happened?”

His lips trembled as he tried to speak, voice weaker than I could bear. “We… we have aged,” he

whispered.

I frowned, my mind refusing to follow. “Aged? But you… you’re a dragon. You don’t age.” My hand. pressed against his chest again, as if I could will back the strength he had lost. “And… I was only gone for a day or two. How could this… happen?”

Kierygan shifted slowly, as if trying to sit up, so I wrapped my arms around him to steady him-just

as he had done for me countless times before.

“When you… were taken,” he began, his voice tight, the magic in the world… it slowly faded.” His piercing blue eyes searched mine. “And you… you were gone for… seventy years.”

My stomach dropped. “No.” My voice cracked, disbelief roaring through me. “No… that can’t be. I…

I couldn’t have been gone that long!”

Kierygan forced a weak, haunted smile. “Evander… said time… works differently in Heavenreach. For you… it may have been a moment. A day, maybe two. But here… on Earth, it’s far longer than you could imagine.”

I swallowed hard, letting the words echo in my mind. Silence fell, heavy and suffocating, pressing against my chest. If I hadn’t been sitting, my knees would have given out. I could almost feel the

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Chapter 182 Fading Flame

emptiness he had carried all those years.

Finally, I whispered, trembling, “Where… where is Evander, by the way?”

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Kierygan’s eyes suddenly filled with sorrow. “Gone,” he said softly, his voice breaking. “He… was the first to go. When the magic drained from the world time… caught up to him-and to all the other vampires-faster than any of us.”

I could feel the sob rising, tearing through me uncontrollably. I pressed my hands to my face, shaking. “How… how about the others?” My voice barely held together. “Ashteryn… Orryx… Callum… Ulyanna… Solara… Scylla?”

Kierygan did not speak. He only shook his head slowly. And I understood.

I let the sobs wrack my body. My tears fell freely, wiping them away only to have new ones take

their place.

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