*The kingdom I grew up believing in was built on lies. The people I trusted had been raised on those lies for generations. For years, I believed we were the heroes.*

My name is Kiara, and I was born in the Kingdom of Virelia, where every child’s magic is stolen the moment they are born.

No one remembers the truth.

Except the witch and the king.

## Chapter One: The Girl Who Hated Devils

My father was a soldier, loyal to the crown until his last breath. My mother died when I was only three. Everyone in our village said the mountain Devils had killed her. They blamed them for our hunger, our fear, and every sorrow we carried.

I had never seen a Devil. I didn’t know what they looked like, how they spoke, or whether the stories were even true.

But I grew up with only one wish—to avenge my mother.

The day I met a Devil, I swore, would be the day I killed one.

My brother was the warrior of our family, strong and fearless. My sister was the clever one, always thinking before she acted. And then there was me. I wasn’t the strongest or the smartest. I simply refused to give up. Every fall only made me train harder.

Whenever my siblings told me to stay home or finish my training, I would sneak away to meet my friends at our favourite hiding place: Aseria Falls.

The crystal-clear waterfall flowed from the Black Mountains, and no one ever came looking for us there. It was our little escape from the world.

At least, until the day everything changed.

My father and the parents of my friends decided it was time for us to grow up. They wanted us to become true warriors of Virelia, so they entrusted our training to the kingdom’s greatest commander.

His name was Troy Bolten.

Ranked third in the kingdom, he stood among the king’s most trusted warriors, feared on the battlefield and respected by everyone who knew his name.

I had never seen him. I had only heard stories about him.

When the news arrived that he would be our tutor, none of us was pleased. My friends couldn’t stop talking about him, which only made me more irritated.

Why should we be trained by someone we had never met?

I wanted nothing to do with him.

How little I knew.

## Chapter Two: My Guruji

The morning our new tutor arrived, he came half an hour before the lesson was supposed to begin.

I was outside when I first saw him.

For a moment, I forgot every complaint I had ever made.

He looked nothing like the terrifying commander I had imagined. There was something about his quiet confidence, the way he carried himself, and the calmness in his eyes that made it difficult to look away.

My friends, who had spent days talking about him, suddenly became shy whenever he addressed them.

I, of course, refused to be impressed.

“Morning, Guruji!” I sang when I approached him.

He sighed. “I told you to stop calling me that.”

“Then stop acting like one.”

He looked at me for a moment before shaking his head, almost smiling.

That was how it began.

During one of our archery lessons, Troy noticed that I was holding my bow incorrectly.

“May I show you?” he asked.

I nodded.

He stepped closer, asking permission before gently adjusting my grip. His hand brushed mine as he guided the bow into position.

Suddenly, he was standing far too close.

Our eyes met.

For a heartbeat, neither of us moved.

I had never felt anything like it. My heart raced, and I forgot what I was supposed to be learning.

He stepped away first, returning to his usual composed expression.

I spent the rest of the lesson pretending nothing had happened.

Days passed, and moments like that became harder to ignore. Sometimes, his eyes lingered on me for a second longer than necessary. Sometimes, I caught him smiling when he thought I wasn’t looking.

Then one day, he didn’t come.

I told myself it didn’t matter.

I went to a festival with my friends, but the music irritated me, the celebrations felt meaningless, and I couldn’t stop wondering where he was.

Eventually, I went home early.

And there he was.

“Troy?” I asked, surprised. “Where were you?”

Before I could say anything else, he stepped closer and kissed me.

I froze.

When he pulled away, he looked at me as though he had been holding back those words for far too long.

“I can’t wait anymore, Kiara,” he whispered. “I asked your father to arrange these lessons because I wanted a reason to be near you. I fell for you the first time I saw you at the waterfall.”

I stared at him, unable to speak.

The man who had made me furious before I even met him had somehow become the person I couldn’t stop thinking about.

And somewhere between our lessons, our arguments, and the moments when our eyes met, I had fallen in love with him too.

## Chapter Three: The Man Behind the Name

Months passed.

Troy and I became a couple, though we kept our relationship a secret. He found excuses to meet me, and I found excuses to see him. For a little while, the world seemed kinder than I had ever known it to be.

Then Virelia was attacked.

The alarms sounded across the kingdom. My family and I rushed towards the royal palace, where soldiers and civilians gathered for protection.

And then I saw him.

A warrior was being praised for saving countless lives during the attack. Everyone was calling him Commander Troy Bolten.

But the face of the man standing before the king wasn’t the face of the man I loved.

I looked around desperately, searching for my Troy.

Who was the man who had trained us? Who had kissed me? Who had told me he loved me?

The king questioned every household that had encountered the mysterious tutor, but no one knew his real identity.

I felt as though the ground had disappeared beneath my feet.

The man I loved had lied to me.

I just didn’t yet know how much of my world had been built on lies.

## Chapter Four: The Devil Who Saved Me

Not long after the attack, disaster struck again.

Our house caught fire.

I was trapped inside, choking on smoke and screaming for help as the flames swallowed everything around me.

Then a strange light appeared.

Someone lifted me from the burning house and carried me through the air, away from the flames. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I knew what he had to be.

A Devil.

Everyone in Virelia knew that only Devils possessed such powers.

When I woke, I was in a place I had never seen before—a kingdom beyond the Black Mountains.

Fear turned into anger. I grabbed a sword and waited for the person who had brought me there.

The moment he entered, I attacked.

But just as the blade reached his chest, I saw his face.

“Troy?”

He stood before me, silent.

“You’re a Devil,” I whispered.

The word tasted like poison.

He lowered his head, then slowly knelt before me.

“Kiara, please. Let me explain.”

“Explain what?” I cried. “That everything was a lie? That you made me fall in love with someone who doesn’t even exist?”

“I lied about my identity. I never lied about loving you.”

I wanted to hate him. I wanted to drive the sword into his heart and make him feel the pain I was feeling.

But I couldn’t.

Because even then, some part of me still loved him.

“I want to go home,” I told him.

He promised to take me to my family, but I couldn’t trust him anymore. I ran before he could stop me.

As I wandered through the unfamiliar kingdom, I saw people using magic in ways I had never imagined. Lights floated above their hands. Objects moved without being touched. Children laughed as they practised abilities that Virelia had taught us were impossible.

They looked like ordinary people.

Not monsters.

Not the creatures from our stories.

People.

Eventually, the king’s soldiers found me and brought me before their ruler.

I expected cruelty. Instead, the king welcomed me politely, as though I were an honoured guest.

He knew who I was.

And when Troy entered the room, I discovered another truth.

He was not simply a Devil.

He was the prince of that kingdom.

At dinner, the king studied me with a curious smile.

“Tell me, Kiara. Would you like to know how we possess magic? Or perhaps you’d rather learn why we don’t have horns growing out of our heads?”

I said nothing.

He laughed softly.

“We are no different from you. We are human beings, just like the people of Virelia.”

His words followed me long after dinner ended.

What if our king had lied?

What if the people we called Devils were never monsters at all?

And what if the history I had devoted my life to believing was nothing but a carefully constructed lie?

The next morning, Troy took me home.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said quietly. “You believe everything between us was a lie.”

I looked away.

“My identity was a lie, Kiara. My love never was. Everything you felt was real.”

I refused to answer.

Before leaving, he handed me a small flag.

“If you ever need me, place this beside Aseria Falls. I’ll come.”

I took it without looking at him.

Then I went home.

## Chapter Five: The Secret Beneath the Palace

Weeks passed, but my questions only grew.

If the Devils were the evil ones, why did they possess magic while we did not? Why had our king taught us to fear people who seemed kinder than the rulers we trusted?

I wanted answers.

So I went to the oldest library in Virelia, where the kingdom’s records and secrets had been kept for generations.

I searched every shelf, every forgotten manuscript, and every dusty corner for a book about magic.

There was nothing.

Not a single honest explanation.

Then the real Commander Troy Bolten—the warrior whose identity my tutor had stolen—found me there.

He was surprised to see me after our last encounter at the palace.

We began talking. He listened as I explained my confusion, and over the following days, we met more often. Eventually, he asked my family for permission to marry me.

My father, who had rarely asked anything of me, wanted me to accept.

I couldn’t say no.

I agreed, even though my heart remained somewhere beyond the Black Mountains.

The engagement was arranged for two days later. During a visit to the palace, the real Troy left to attend to his duties, and I found myself wandering through corridors I had never been allowed to explore.

Then I noticed a strange light coming from the basement.

No one was supposed to enter that part of the palace.

Naturally, I went inside.

There, hidden beneath the kingdom, stood a massive cylindrical chamber filled with an unnatural glow. Beside it, a guard spoke quietly to another man.

“The Liam family’s heir will be born tonight,” he said.

I frowned.

Why were they discussing a child who hadn’t even been born?

I followed the guard when he left.

He arrived at the Liam family’s home just as the baby was born. Everyone welcomed him, believing he had come to bless the newborn.

But when the family looked away, he carried the child into a hidden room.

I watched through a narrow opening.

The guard gave the baby a strange medicine. A few seconds later, a brilliant light emerged from the child.

The baby vanished.

A moment later, I saw him appear in the courtyard.

Teleportation.

The child possessed magic.

The guard quickly retrieved him, administered the medicine again, and captured the light that had escaped from his body. Then he carried it back to the palace.

I followed him all the way to the underground chamber.

There, he opened a container and poured the stolen light into the enormous cylinder.

I couldn’t breathe.

The king was stealing magic from newborn children.

Every child in Virelia had been born with a gift, and our king had been taking it from us before we were old enough to know it existed.

But why?

And how many children had suffered the same fate?

I wanted to expose everything. I wanted to tell my family, my friends, and every person in the kingdom.

But if the king discovered what I knew, he could destroy everyone I loved.

I had to be careful.

For the first time in my life, I understood that the greatest danger wasn’t hiding in the mountains.

It was sitting on our throne.

## Chapter Six: The Flag at Aseria Falls

My wedding day arrived.

I woke to find my wedding gown waiting beside my bed. My father stood near the window, crying quietly at the thought of his daughter leaving home.

I wanted to comfort him.

I wanted to tell him that I loved him.

But I couldn’t bring myself to marry a man while my heart belonged to someone else.

Before the ceremony, I visited my mother’s memorial to ask for her blessing.

I sat beside it and finally allowed myself to cry.

“Mother, I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. “I’ve discovered things that could destroy everything we believe in. I’ve fallen in love with someone I’m supposed to hate. And now I’m about to marry someone I don’t love.”

For a moment, I thought I saw a woman sitting beside me.

She looked like my mother.

Her expression was gentle, almost familiar.

“Close your eyes, Kiara,” she whispered. “Imagine the person you want to hold when the world falls apart.”

I closed my eyes.

And I saw Troy.

The man I had been taught to hate.

The man who had lied to me.

The man who had saved my life.

The man I still loved.

I opened my eyes, stood up, and ran.

I ran through the streets, through the forest, all the way to Aseria Falls. My wedding gown caught on branches, and tears blurred my vision.

When I reached the waterfall, I pulled out the little flag Troy had given me.

I placed it beside the rocks.

Then I waited.

He came.

The moment I saw him, I ran into his arms and held him as tightly as I could.

Then I slapped him.

“How dare you?” I cried. “How dare you make me love you and then leave me with a thousand questions?”

He didn’t defend himself.

He simply listened.

I told him everything: the stolen magic, the hidden chamber, the children, the king, and the wedding I couldn’t go through with.

When I finally finished, he held my hands.

“Kiara, I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” I whispered. “But I can’t marry anyone until I know the truth.”

“Then let me tell you.”

## Chapter Seven: The History They Buried

Troy took me to a hidden place beyond the mountains, far from the eyes of both kingdoms.

There, at last, he told me the truth.

His real name was Edward.

Long ago, Virelia and his kingdom had been one. Their people had lived together, sharing their knowledge and magic. No one had been called a Devil.

Edward’s father, the king of the mountain kingdom, believed magic was a gift meant to be shared. He wanted every person to learn to use their abilities and live without fear.

But Virelia’s king wanted something different.

He wanted all the magic for himself.

When Edward’s father refused to surrender his people’s gifts, Virelia’s king began spreading lies. He convinced his subjects that the magical people were dangerous, that they intended to destroy humanity, and that they were responsible for the kingdom’s suffering.

He staged conflicts, manipulated the truth, and turned neighbours against one another.

People died.

And when the blame fell upon Edward’s father, the people began calling him a Devil.

Those who believed him innocent followed him into the mountains. The kingdoms separated, and the lies became history.

Edward’s father had been betrayed by his own friend.

And the king of Virelia had spent generations stealing magic from innocent children to make himself more powerful.

Then Edward told me something that shattered what remained of my childhood.

My mother had discovered the truth.

She had learned that the king was stealing the magic of newborns and hiding it beneath the palace. She had tried to uncover his crimes.

The king had made sure she would never reveal what she knew.

My mother hadn’t been killed by Devils.

She had been killed because she had discovered the truth.

I fell to my knees.

For years, I had hated an entire people for a crime they had never committed. I had trained to avenge my mother by killing the very people who had wanted to protect her.

And the man I loved belonged to them.

Edward knelt beside me and took my hand.

“You don’t have to forgive me for lying about who I was,” he said. “But you deserve to know what really happened.”

I looked into his eyes.

For the first time, I understood that love wasn’t about believing someone was perfect. It was about seeing the truth, even when it hurt, and deciding what to do with it.

I wasn’t ready to forgive everything.

But I was ready to fight.

## Chapter Eight: The Last Lie

Edward and I returned to Virelia with a plan.

The king had spent generations controlling the truth. He had stolen magic from children, erased evidence from history, and taught an entire kingdom to fear innocent people.

I would make sure everyone knew.

During a gathering at the palace, I exposed the hidden chamber and the jars of stolen magic. I told the people what I had discovered and revealed the truth about my mother’s death.

At first, no one believed me.

Then the evidence was brought before them.

The king tried to silence me. He called me a traitor and ordered his guards to seize me. But Edward stood beside me, and the people who had once feared the mountain kingdom began to question the man they had obeyed all their lives.

The king’s lies were finally falling apart.

In desperation, he tried to use the stolen magic to protect himself.

But the power he had taken from innocent children was never truly his.

The chamber erupted with light.

The jars shattered, and magic swept through the palace like a storm. The stolen gifts returned to their rightful owners, travelling beyond the walls and across the kingdom.

I felt something awaken inside me.

A force lifted the broken stones from the floor. Objects rose around me, moving with my thoughts.

My magic.

The king had stolen it from me when I was born.

Now it had returned.

Edward and I fought together as the king’s control crumbled. His guards abandoned him, and the people he had ruled through fear finally stood against him.

The man who had called an entire kingdom evil had revealed the truth about himself.

He was the one who had stolen their gifts.

He was the one who had turned history into a weapon.

And he was the one who had made monsters out of innocent people.

When the battle ended, Virelia was no longer the kingdom I had grown up knowing.

It was the beginning of something new.

The people beyond the Black Mountains were no longer enemies. Children could learn to use their magic. Families could discover the abilities that had been stolen from them. And the truth about my mother could finally be remembered.

Edward stood beside me as the sun rose over the mountains.

For years, I had believed that my purpose was to kill a Devil.

Instead, I had fallen in love with one.

And he had helped me save the kingdom that had taught me to hate him.

I looked towards the mountains, where two kingdoms had once been divided by fear.

The Devils were never monsters.

They were people.

And history had never told the whole truth.

History called Edward a Devil.

But I knew his heart.

He was my home.