Kaelan's POV: The Oathbreaker
The shackles shattered the moment the Luminarch's hand closed around Eira's throat.
Kaelan felt it—the ancient oath snapping inside his ribs like rotten thread. The shadows that had choked him for weeks recoiled, hissing as they dissolved into smoke.
Because the oath wasn't Veyl's.
It was theirs.
Riven's knife flashed in the dungeon gloom, severing the last of his bonds. "Took you long enough, Dain."
Kaelan lunged for the stairs, but she yanked him back. "They'll kill you. You're half-starved, your magic's drained—"
"Then give me the blade." His voice was raw.
Riven's amber eyes narrowed. "Which one?"
"The one you stole from the Luminarch Wastes."
A beat. Then she grinned and unsheathed a dagger forged from blackened starlight—the only weapon that could pierce a Luminarch's golden hide.
Kaelan snatched it and ran.
Above him, the world was coming apart.
---
Eira's POV: The Golden Cage
The Luminarch's grip was colder than death.
Eira thrashed as General Solrac dragged her through the rift, its armored fingers biting into her windpipe. The Hollow Crown coiled tighter around her wrist, its whispers frantic:
"Kill it. Burn it. Feast on it."
But her magic wouldn't respond.
The Luminarch's mask tilted, studying her. "You don't remember, do you?" Its voice was the scrape of a blade on bone. "What she made you do?"
Eira choked. "Who—?"
"The queen. Your mother."
A memory tore through her—
_A golden crib. A woman with Eira's eyes plunging a needle into a baby's wrist. The first crescent mark. The first scream._
Eira's knees buckled.
The Luminarch laughed. "You were never her heir. You were her experiment."
Then the crown screamed—
—and Kaelan erupted from the rift behind them, the black dagger gleaming in his hand.
---
The Reckoning
Kaelan moved like a storm given form.
The Luminarch barely raised its sword before he was on it, the obsidian dagger carving through its golden armor like paper. Black ichor sprayed as he wrenched Eira free, shoving her behind him.
"Run," he snarled.
She didn't.
The Hollow Crown uncoiled, slithering up her arm like liquid night. The voice in her head was gone now—consumed by the crown's older, hungrier will.
"Together," it murmured.
Eira grabbed Kaelan's hand.
Their combined magic detonated.
---
The Crown's Truth
The blast should have killed them.
Instead, it unmade the Luminarch—not just its body, but its existence, unraveling it thread by golden thread.
Panting, Kaelan stared at Eira. At the crown now fused to her forearm, its jagged points digging into her flesh.
"What the hell was that?"
The crown answered before she could:
"Justice."
Then the ground lurched.
More rifts tore open, dozens of Luminarchs clawing their way through. And at the center of the chaos stood Nyx, her white hair whipping in the wind, her ink-black eyes fixed on Eira.
" Now do you believe me?" she called. "The crown doesn't want to rule them."
She smiled.
"It wants to eat them."
---
The Devourer Awakens
The crown's spikes drove deeper into Eira's arm.
"Let me in," it begged. "Just this once."
Kaelan's hand tightened around hers. "Don't."
But the Luminarchs were closing in, their blank masks reflecting her fractured face.
Eira made her choice.
She pulled.
The crown's power flooded her veins—not starlight, not shadow, but something older.
Something ravenous.
General Solrac's mask cracked as she smiled with too many teeth.
"Welcome home, daughter."
---
Teaser for Chapter Thirteen: The Queen's Fangs
The crown has awakened.
The Luminarchs kneel.
And Kaelan?
He's the only one who sees the monster in her eyes.
---
New Revelations:
- Eira's True Origin : Not a princess, but a *weapon* forged by the Celestial Queen.
- The Hollow Crown's Purpose: To consume Luminarch souls.
- Nyx's Endgame: She's been manipulating both sides from the start.
Will Kaelan stand by Eira as she embraces the crown's power? Or will he become her next target