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Chapter 67 – The Echo of Betrayal
Last Updated:
2025-04-05 02:21:36
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The silence that followed Elias’s disappearance was a heavy, suffocating thing. It wasn’t just the betrayal—it was the knowledge that it had been growing beneath their feet all along, woven into the very halls they ruled from.Selene paced the dimly lit war chamber, her cloak sweeping behind her like spilled ink. The flames in the hearth danced wildly, reflecting the storm in her chest. Her crown, once a symbol of power, now felt like a weight pressing against her temples.Sebastian leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, watching her. “You haven’t said a word.”“I’m thinking.”He arched a brow. “That’s never been the problem. The problem is you don’t trust anyone enough to speak your thoughts aloud.”Selene stopped. “Would you, if every time you looked over your shoulder, there was someone holding a blade meant for your back?”Cassian entered the chamber then, bruised but unbowed, tossing a bloodstained scroll onto the table. “Intercepted at the border. Smuggled correspondence bea
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The moonlight was thin—filtered through skeletal branches of the overgrown ruins once known as the Queen’s Garden. Once, it had been a sanctuary. Now, it was silent. Forsaken.Selene stood at the edge of the stone archway, cloaked in midnight blue, a hood drawn low over her face. The old garden had burned during the last rebellion, and nothing had truly grown here since. Not even the roses.“They’ll come,” Damien murmured beside her, his hand hovering near the dagger at his hip. “Cowards always do when they think their victim is alone.”Selene didn’t respond. She was listening.The wind shifted.Soft footsteps.Then—a whisper.“Princess,” a voice said, smooth and unfamiliar. “Or should I say… Queen?”A man emerged from the shadows beyond the ruins, clad in muted silver armor. His crest bore the twin serpents of House Valemont.Behind him, two figures followed—hooded, masked.Selene stepped forward, pulling her hood back.“You sent an assassin,” she said coldly.“An unfortunate misunde
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The map Damien unrolled crackled with age, its edges frayed like something clawed at them long ago. The faded ink revealed a region blanketed in darkness—no names, no landmarks, just a jagged shape surrounded by thorn-like symbols.“The Shattered Lands,” he said grimly, running a gloved hand across the parchment. “No one returns from there untouched.”Selene stared at the mark pulsing on her palm—the bond magic that had begun to shimmer black along its edges. The same darkness she’d seen in her vision… in them.The twin heir.The echo of her soul that shouldn’t exist.“I don’t want to be untouched,” she whispered. “I want the truth. All of it.”Damien’s gaze lingered on her, his usual smirk replaced with something unguarded. “Then you’re going to need more than truth. You’ll need power—more than either of us has ever touched.”Selene’s expression turned sharp. “Then we take it.”⸻The journey toward the Shattered Lands was a test of endurance, not just through terrain but through will
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The sky shattered.Or at least, that’s what it felt like when the creature descended.The air fractured with soundless force, the ground cracked beneath its weightless form, and darkness poured from its wings like poisoned rain. Damien lunged forward, but the thing slammed him aside with a gust of wind, sending him sprawling across the ruined courtyard.Selene didn’t move. Couldn’t.The creature hovered inches above the ground, its massive wings folding inward like a cloak. Smoke coiled around it, shaping horns, claws, and a maw that pulsed with lightless hunger. It had no name—only instinct. And that instinct wanted her.“Selene,” Damien’s voice rasped through bloodied lips. “You have to run.”She didn’t.Instead, she walked forward.Every step ignited something dormant inside her. Not magic like she had known it. Not the inherited gift of the royal line. This was older. Wilder. Buried so deeply it burned through her skin as it rose—like light trying to force its way through a vessel
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The moment Selene stepped through the crimson-lit door, the world around her shifted with a jolt that sucked the breath from her lungs. It wasn’t a fall, nor a walk—it was like being unmade and sewn back together in the same heartbeat.The glow vanished behind her as the door disappeared into the void, leaving only the sound of her own heartbeat echoing in her ears.She stood in a place that wasn’t a room, but not a dream either. The sky above her was a sweeping veil of black silk embroidered with crimson threads that pulsed like veins. Below her feet, the ground shimmered with fragments of memories—hers and others—shattered and scattered like broken glass.In the distance, a single obsidian pillar rose from the ground, crowned by a glowing, heart-shaped crystal suspended mid-air.And chained beneath it… was Damien.Her heart clenched.He was on his knees, shirtless, bloodied, the mark of their bond dimly glowing across his collarbone. Thick silver chains bound him—wrapped around his
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The royal court gleamed with polished lies and gilded betrayal.Elira stood just beyond the golden archway of the Hall of Judicium, cloaked in muted crimson. Not the bold blood-red of victory, but a shade that whispered defiance under restraint. Her crown was absent. Her gaze, razor-sharp.The whispers started before she even crossed the threshold.“She returned?”“After vanishing into the shadows?”“She dares—”Yes. She dared.Every noble, every scholar, every member of the high houses present turned their gaze to her. But it was only one gaze she sought—and when it met hers, the room ceased to exist.Arian.His expression was unreadable. A fortress carved in silence. But his fingers curled tightly around the edge of the throne.“Elira Virellian,” the High Arbiter announced. “You were summoned under charges of desertion, political sabotage, and fraternizing with marked traitors. Do you deny these claims?”She stepped forward, voice steady, spine straight. “No.”Gasps. Ripples of outr
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Kael carried Elara through the crumbling halls of the ruined citadel, her body limp in his arms. Ash rained from the vaulted ceiling like gray snow. The vault behind them had collapsed entirely, burying Dain—and the Ardent Mirror—beneath ancient stone and cursed light.Her skin was cold.Too cold.“Elara,” he whispered, brushing her hair back, smudged with soot and blood. “Don’t do this to me.”But her eyes remained shut. Her pulse fluttered weakly at her neck, like a thread unraveling.They had no time. He had no options.Except one.Kael turned toward the east chamber—the forbidden crypt beneath the old sanctum. No one went there. Not even Elara.Not even Dain.But Kael wasn’t just a warrior. He was raised by men who trafficked in blood oaths, trained by shadows who knew how to barter with things older than gods.He descended the narrow staircase two steps at a time, breath ragged, Elara cradled tightly in his arms.At the bottom stood a rusted iron gate carved with sigils no human
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Kael’s hand was still wrapped around Elara’s wrist as he pulled her through the dim corridor of the fortress, every stride radiating tension. The weight of silence between them was louder than screams.“Let go of me,” Elara hissed, twisting her arm in vain. Her pulse was pounding—equal parts fury and something far more dangerous.Kael turned, his face shadowed in the torchlight, eyes burning gold. “You walked into the lion’s den alone. Again. You think Dain would have spared you this time?”She yanked her hand free. “I didn’t need you to save me.”He laughed coldly. “No, you needed someone to die for you, apparently.”The air thinned between them. Elara stepped back, but he followed—always one step closer than she wanted, or maybe exactly where she needed him.“Why do you always do this?” she whispered, voice trembling.“Do what?” His voice dipped low, rough, intimate. “Follow you into danger? Break rules for you? Want you so badly it makes me lose my mind?”“You don’t want me,” she s
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Kael’s grip tightened painfully around Elara’s wrist, forcing her to wince.“Kael,” she said softly, “it’s me. It’s Elara. Let go.”But his eyes — gods, his eyes — they weren’t just wounded anymore.There was a storm swirling inside them, a violent force pressing against his soul, clawing to the surface.“I can feel them,” he rasped, voice cracking. “Inside me. Twisting.”Dain stepped forward cautiously, blade drawn but low.“He’s been tainted. The ritual—you weren’t the only one marked, Elara.”Elara knelt closer, ignoring the way Kael’s body shuddered under her touch.“Fight it,” she whispered. “Stay with me.”Kael’s fingers spasmed, finally releasing her wrist.He sagged against the wall, breathing in shallow, broken gasps.“I tried,” he muttered. “Tried to keep them out. But they promised me…” His voice broke. “They promised they’d spare you.”Elara’s stomach twisted violently.“Who?” she demanded. “Who promised?”But Kael’s head slumped forward, and for a terrifying moment, she t
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The world was not the same.Elara staggered to her feet, coughing through the settling dust. Dain pulled her up roughly, his face bleeding from a cut above his brow, eyes burning with rage—and something worse. Fear.The ruins around them groaned and cracked. Whatever Kael had awakened, it was spreading like a sickness, bleeding through stone and earth alike. The once-familiar walls now felt hostile, every breath of air tasting of metal and ruin.“We have to move,” Dain barked, dragging her forward.“But Kael—” Elara tried to turn back toward the shattered altar, the spot where he had disappeared.Dain shook her hard enough to rattle her teeth. “He made his choice. Now we have to survive it.”Behind them, the ground caved in completely, swallowing the last remnants of the altar in a deafening roar. Dark vines slithered from the abyss, twisting and coiling like living nightmares.Elara didn’t realize she was crying until she tasted the salt on her lips.Kael.She had seen him—truly seen
