LOGINCassian’s warning continued to echo through my mind.And Damon is the key.I stared at the man standing before me, the man who had once been my husband, the man who had murdered me, and the man whose blood might now determine whether my real husband survived.Damon looked as though he had seen his own grave opening beneath his feet.“No,” he whispered. “That cannot be true.”The runes on the walls glowed brighter.The two names remained connected by a black line, and mine shone beneath them like a silver moon caught in a web.Darius raised his sword.“Your Majesty, we should restrain him more securely.”“Agreed,” Lyra said immediately. “We should have done it before entering this place.”Damon didn’t resist when the warriors approached him.He held out his hands.“Do it,” he said. “If my blood is what they need, keeping me restrained is the safest option.”I watched him carefully.A few days ago, he would have fought to escape. He would have searched for an advantage, manipulated the
The words refused to leave my mind.Your husband was the one who was supposed to die that night.I stood before the open doorway, staring into the darkness beneath the stronghold. Somewhere beyond those ancient walls, Cassian was chained inside a prison built from secrets my enemies had spent centuries protecting.And according to the vision, he had been the original target.Not me.I turned slowly toward Damon.He was sitting against the wall, his wrists bleeding beneath the broken silver restraints. His face had lost what little color remained, and his eyes followed me with an expression I had never seen on him before.Guilt.Not the convenient guilt of a man who regretted losing what he wanted.Something uglier.Something closer to shame.“You knew,” I said.Damon lowered his head.My stomach tightened.“You knew Cassian was supposed to die that night.”“No.”“Then explain why the vision showed me that he was the original target.”“I don’t know why it showed you that.”I crossed th
The ancient doors opened without a sound.That was the first thing that frightened me.Stone doors that heavy should have groaned. Chains should have rattled. Dust should have fallen from the ceiling.Instead, the darkness beyond the doorway simply widened, swallowing the light from our torches as if it had been waiting for us.Then Cassian’s warning echoed in my mind.Run.I reached for him through our mate bond.Nothing.No warmth. No familiar presence. No reassurance that he was still alive.Only an empty darkness that seemed to stretch between worlds.“Cassian?” I whispered.The silence answered.“Seraphine!” Lyra shouted.A black chain snapped around her waist and dragged her toward the open doorway. She drove her blade into the stone floor, but the chain pulled harder.I lunged forward and caught her hand.Pain tore through my shoulder.“Let go!” she gasped.“Not a chance!”Silver fire burst from my palm, striking the chain. It shattered, and Lyra crashed against me.Behind us,
The sound of footsteps climbing the stairs grew louder.Slow.Deliberate.Whatever was coming toward us had no reason to hurry. It knew we were trapped.I stood at the bottom of the staircase, my silver blade raised, while the warriors behind me formed a defensive line. Lyra stood at my right, her eyes fixed on the darkness above. Darius had positioned six warriors behind us and six near the sealed entrance.Damon remained between two guards, his wrists bound with silver restraints.His face had gone pale.That frightened me more than the footsteps.Damon Blackthorn had faced armies without blinking. He had watched enemies die and ordered executions with the same cold expression he wore when discussing the weather. Fear was not something he displayed easily.Yet now, he was staring into the darkness as if he recognized the thing approaching us.“What is it?” I whispered.He didn’t answer.“Damon.”His gaze shifted to me. “When it reaches the bottom, don’t let it speak your name.”A co
“Seraphine, I was never supposed to inherit the crown.”Cassian’s words haunted me long after the vision disappeared.The candles had reignited. The commanders were still in the war chamber, and the cracked silver disk lay on the table between us. Yet I could barely hear the voices around me.I had married a king.I had trusted a man whose family had been entangled in the ancient covenant for generations. I had accepted that his father had made terrible choices, that his blood carried a dangerous inheritance, and that the Shadow King wanted to use him as a key to the prison beneath the mountain.But now I wondered whether I had misunderstood everything.What did Cassian mean when he said he was never supposed to inherit the crown?And why had he never told me?“Your Majesty?”Darius’s voice interrupted my thoughts.I looked up.Every person in the room was watching me. Lyra stood beside Selene, her fingers still wrapped around my hand. Damon remained under guard near the far wall.He
“Seraphine, don’t trust the voice that calls itself my father.”Cassian’s warning kept repeating in my mind long after the bond went silent.I stood in the royal courtyard, surrounded by warriors who had only moments earlier sworn to follow me. Their faces reflected the firelight from the burning city beyond the walls, but I barely noticed them.All I could see was the vision of Cassian chained beneath the mountain.The figure standing before him had worn a broken silver crown. Its eyes had been identical to Cassian’s, yet there had been nothing human in their darkness.Whoever that creature was, it believed Cassian belonged to it.And now Cassian had warned me not to trust it.“Your Majesty?”Darius’s voice dragged me back to the present.I looked down at my wrist. The black line had reached the center of my palm, spreading from the silver crescent like a crack through ice.I closed my fingers.“Send for Lyra and Queen Selene. I want them in the war chamber immediately.”“Is somethin







