The Dragon King and His Fallen Star novel Chapter 184

Chapter 184: The Warden Arrives

EIRLYS’ POV

Claim

The air shifted around me, subtle but charged, yet the six celestial guardians remained statuesque, their composure unbroken despite the presence that had entered.

Curiosity gnawed at me until I could no longer resist. I turned-and there he was. Golden eyes gazed down at me, steady and bright. He wore a suit of silver armor that gleamed like caught moonlight, a bow slung across his back, and a quiver of arrows fanning out like rays of light.

A chill ran through me. I knew that face. I had seen him before-in that strange place, just after I had narrowly escaped Morwenna and Mirael’s trap. This stranger, the one who had taken the

second half of the grimoire, the one who had once mistaken me for my mother.

If he stood among them now, that meant he, too, was a celestial. A celestial who knew

my

mother.

With everything that had happened between being taken and my return here, I’d never found the

chance-or the courage-to ask who my father truly was.

And now, looking at him-at the warmth in his eyes that none of the others had ever shown me, I

couldn’t stop the thought that rose.

Could it be him? My father?

Aecron’s composed voice pierced the tension in the room. “Finally, the Warden has arrived,” he

said. “It’s good of you to join us, Orion.”

At Orion’s whistle, the hounds stopped growling, bared their fangs no longer, and sat back on their

haunches-but they didn’t leave my side. He advanced toward the six celestial guardians with

measured, effortless grace, yet his gaze never strayed from me.

“Forgive me,” he said, his voice deep and steady, “I could not have come sooner.”

Every word felt as if it were meant for me alone. I couldn’t breathe properly, caught between the

awe of his presence and the strange, aching pull that twisted in my chest.

Seraphael’s expression hardened, his wings folding slightly behind him as he stepped forward. His

voice rang clear across the vast hall, each word precise and heavy with restrained judgment.

“We have already determined it was you who caused the anomaly,” he said. “All we ask, Orion, is that you confess it.”

The air grew taut, the silence thick between them. Yet Orion did not flinch. His stance remained

steady, his expression calm-unyielding.

“Yes,” he said simply. “I fathered this child.”

III

1/4

Chapter 184. The Warden Arrives

Claim

Gasps rippled through the guardians, but all I could hear was the pounding of my own heart-loud,

unsteady, disbelieving.

For a moment, I felt nothing. Only the hollow echo of his words sinking into the silence.

My father.

It sounded unreal, and yet there was no mistaking them.

Then his gaze softened. He lifted a hand and gestured toward me. “Rise, my daughter,” he said

gently. “You kneel to no one.”

The words struck like thunder beneath my skin. Daughter. He had called me his daughter.

My knees wavered, my breath snagging in my throat. I felt like hollow glass, trembling, on the verge of shattering. One trembling hand found the steady warmth of the hound beside me. Slowly, I pushed myself upright, my pulse a wild drumbeat in my chest, and met the gaze of the man who had just unraveled everything I thought I knew about who I was.

Helios stepped forward, his expression unreadable. “We have laws about this, Orion,” he said. “You

know what such a transgression means.”

Orion closed the distance in careful, unhurried strides, until he was beside me. The air seemed to

bend around him-tall, commanding, impossibly radiant.

“I know the law,” he said evenly. “I helped create them.”

“And yet you broke them,” Hemera, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

Orion didn’t flinch. He met her gaze squarely. “I know what I did,” he said, his tone even. “And I will

bear the judgment you decree.”

Then, his voice hardened-sharp and warning. “But you will not condemn my child for my sin.”

Seraphael’s wings unfurled, light rippling across each feather like dawn refracted through

stormclouds. “She is a danger,” he declared, his voice edged with divine thunder.

A low, incredulous laugh broke from Orion, quiet bu echoing in the vast hall. “A danger?” he

repeated. “To what, Seraphael?”

He reached out, resting a hand on my shoulder. The warmth of it steadied me, grounding me in the face of their radiance.

“If there was one who first wrought imbalance,” Orion said, his gaze sweeping over the gathered host, “it was not her. It was us.”

The silence that followed was vast and resounding Orion’s voice rose again, calm but resonant.” We left a void upon the earth after the first creation” he said. “From that void, a dark fae was born. And in its hunger, he sought to reshape what we had once made.”

|||

<

2/4

Chapter 184 The Warden Arrives

Claim

He turned slightly toward me, his tone softening, threaded with something like sorrow. “And this so -called aberration you name…” His gaze lingered, luminous and unflinching.”…is the one who

restored it.”

No one spoke. Even the guardians’ divine light seemed to waver, their brilliance dimming beneath the gravity of truth.

At last, Nethros stepped forward, his brow drawn in wary curiosity. “Is this the Light Reaper the child spoke of?”

I straightened, meeting Nethros’s gaze with defiance. “Yes,” I said quietly. “That’s what he called

himself.”

When he offered no reply, I pressed on. “He sought to claim my seven grains of light-the ones my mother and the last of her guardians entrusted to me.”

A ripple of unease passed among them, their luminous forms shifting like light caught in restless

water. I swallowed, but did not look away.

“He wished to mimic the First Dawn,” I continued, my voice firm despite the tremor in my chest.

“He wanted to ignite himself as a new Prime Fae-one powerful enough to remake the world.”

Helios folded his arms across his chest, his expression composed yet inscrutable. “A compelling

tale, child,” he said, his voice deep and measured-each word gleaming with restrained power. “But

tell me how are we to know you do not spin falsehoods merely to escape your judgment?”

–

At his words, my light crackled, breaking the silence with a faint, volatile flare. I met his doubtful

gaze and didn’t waver. “I am not trying to escape anything,” I said quietly, each word deliberate. “I

am ready to surrender my light-and with it, my life.

Then Orion spoke, his voice calm but unwavering. “If you do not trust the girl,” he said, “my steward

will speak for her.”

The gathered turned their eyes to him. “Lepus?” Seraphael said, surprise lacing his calm. “He

remained on Earth all this while?”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify