The Monster in the Mirror
The crown's spikes stopped a hair's breadth from Kaelan's throat.
Eira's entire body trembled with the effort of holding it back, her muscles screaming as the crown *fought* her, its voice a snarl in her skull:
"He is shadow. You are light. He was always meant to burn."
Kaelan didn't flinch. His golden eyes locked onto hers, his breath steady despite the deadly points at his neck. "Eira."
Just her name. No plea. No fear.
Something inside her cracked.
With a scream, she wrenched the crown's power inward—not toward Kaelan, but into herself. Agony lit up her veins as the spikes reversed, embedding deep into her own forearm. Blood, black and shimmering with stolen Luminarch light, dripped onto the forest floor.
The queen laughed.
"Oh, darling," she sighed, stepping closer. "Must you always be so dramatic?"
---
The First Lie.
The memory hit without warning—
_A younger version of the queen (mother, mother) cradling a crying infant. Not in a nursery. In a tomb. The walls pulsed with trapped Forgotten, their voices shrieking as the queen pressed a blade to the baby's wrist—_
_"You'll thank me one day,"_ she whispered, carving the crescent mark into Eira's skin.
The vision shattered.
Eira staggered, her knees hitting the dirt. "You didn't make me to kill gods." She gasped. "You made me to replace them."
The queen's smile widened. "And here I thought you weren't listening."
Behind them, Nyx giggled.
Kaelan's shadows lashed out, forming a barrier between Eira and the queen. "Run. Now."
The queen flicked her fingers.
Kaelan's shadows turned on him, wrapping around his throat like a noose.
---
The Choice
Eira moved without thinking.
Her bloodied hand seized the crown's power, not to attack—but to heal. Starlight, bright and pure as the day she was born, erupted from her palms, severing the queen's hold on Kaelan's shadows.
The crown howled in protest.
"Traitor! Weakling! Coward!"
Eira ignored it, hauling Kaelan upright. His fingers tangled with hers, his voice rough. "You're bleeding."
She was. The crown's spikes had torn her arm to shreds, but the wounds glowed—not gold, not silver, but something new.
Something hers.
The queen's amusement faded. "What have you done?"
Eira bared her bloodied teeth. "What you taught me."
Then she pulled—not on the crown's power, but on the bond between her and Kaelan.
Their combined magic *ignited*.
The Crown's Undoing
Light and shadow collided, weaving together into a storm that shook the trees. The Hollow Crown screamed, its spikes wrenching free from Eira's flesh as the power between her and Kaelan reforged it—
—into a circlet of intertwined night and dawn.
The queen recoiled. "Impossible!"
Nyx clapped her hands. "Oooh, pretty!"
Kaelan stared at the transformed crown, then at Eira. His thumb brushed her cheek, smearing blood and starlight. "You—"
"We," Eira corrected.
The queen snarled—
—just as the reforged crown *leaped* from Eira's hands and onto Kaelan's brow.
For one terrible second, nothing happened.
Then his shadows exploded in a wave of liquid night, swallowing the queen whole.
---
The King Awakens
The darkness cleared.
Where the queen had stood, only a scorched outline remained.
Kaelan swayed, the crown's power flickering around him like a living thing. His eyes—once gold—now swirled with the same silver veins as Eira's.
Nyx let out a low whistle. "Well. That happened."
Then Kaelan collapsed.
Eira barely caught him, her hands shaking as the crown's voice whispered—not in her mind, but through her, through the bond they'd forged:
"Two thrones. One fate. Will you kneel… or reign?"
---
Teaser for Chapter Fifteen: The Twin Crowns
Kaelan isn't waking up.
The bond between them is unraveling.
And the queen?
She's not as gone as they thought.