#Chapter 90: Revelation

I knew something was wrong the moment I reached for my journal and it wasn’t there. It had been under my pillow for weeks, tucked away like some adolescent secret, always close enough that I could reach for it when the words built too high in my throat. That journal wasn’t just a collection of entries, it was the only place I had allowed myself to be honest. When I needed to vent, cry, scream in silence, it had all gone into those pages. But now, the space was empty. The pen Richard had given me, the one engraved with the crest of the royal council, was gone too. At first I tore apart the sheets, convinced it had just slipped between the mattress and the wall. But the longer I searched, pulling open drawers, checking under furniture, the more dread coiled in my stomach. It wasn’t misplacement. It was absence, deliberate and chilling. My heart thudded painfully in my chest, a sick rhythm echoing with every thought of what might happen if the contents of that journal fell into the wron