Leofric’s POVFire licked across the chamber floor, yet I felt no heat. Only a cold hollowness pressed into me as the newborn—our newborn—was lifted from Morwenna’s trembling arms. The figure cloaked in shadow and white flame moved with terrifying calm, ignoring the chaos and blood that still clung to the battlefield.I wanted to strike, to summon steel or claw, to tear the child back. But something stronger than blade or rage coiled around me: destiny’s weight, crushing and absolute. My body refused to obey, as if some ancient law held me still.Morwenna’s scream pierced me, raw and breaking. She reached, her hands blistered from flame, and yet she clawed for the child as if nothing else existed. Her eyes—those defiant, storm-lit eyes—found mine. There was no plea. Only command. Do not let them take what is ours.And still, I stood frozen.The figure turned. Though faceless, I felt its gaze burning into me, ancient recognition, an intimacy that chilled deeper than death. The voice, w
Leofric’s POVFire surged in my veins as if the act of breathing alone might split me open. The cathedral walls groaned with every clash of steel and spell around me, but all my senses locked onto her. Morwenna stood at the altar’s broken edge, her skin pale as ashes, her hair tangled with streaks of blood. She had just given everything—half her soul—for this war, and even from across the chamber, I felt the hollow echo of that sacrifice.Her gaze cut through the chaos and landed on me. For a breath, I forgot the monsters, the Bone Seer, even the agony rippling through my reborn flesh. It was only her—this woman who had marked me once in rebellion, then again in desperate devotion.I strode forward, blade dripping black ichor, my body still adjusting to its second life. Each step was a rebellion against death itself. But I wasn’t free. I felt the Bone Seer’s curse tightening in my chest, binding me closer to the darkness clawing at the edges of my mind. She wanted me to break—to fall
Leofric’s POVBlood burned in my veins like liquid fire, the echo of Morwenna’s scream still ringing in my skull. The last thing I remembered before darkness clawed me under was her hand on mine, her voice cutting through the chaos, swearing she’d find me—even in death. Now I was here, standing in the shattered nave of the Bone Cathedral, facing monsters dragged from the filth of nightmares.The Bone Seer stood at the far end, her veil slick with blood, her frame trembling like a vessel barely containing the rot inside.She smiled, cruel and thin. “So the dead prince rises again. Will you fall a second time?”I wanted to tear her apart. My body pulsed with hunger, my strength rawer, sharper, almost feral. Yet when my gaze brushed Morwenna’s face across the battlefield—hair wild, blade dripping gore, eyes locked on me as though she’d breathed me back into existence—the fury twisted into something else.Obsession. Not just mine, hers too. I saw it in the tremor of her lip, in the reckle
Leofric POVBlood still pounded in my ears as I dragged in air like a drowning man. The Bone Seer’s creatures circled me—spined shadows stitched from marrow and hatred, their jaws clicking with hunger. Her laugh cut through the ringing in my skull, sharp and mocking. I had clawed my way back from death, from nothingness, only to face her the very moment my lungs remembered how to breathe.Fate never gave me mercy.Her eyes, two pits of bleached white flame, glared into me. “So the dead king rises. How long before you collapse under the weight of what you lost?”The words should have rattled me, but rage is steadier than grief. Rage is honest. I gripped my blade tighter, letting the fury burn through the ache still festering in my bones.The first monster lunged. My body moved before thought could catch it, instincts screaming awake. Steel sliced through brittle ribs, and the thing shattered into ash and bone-dust that stung my throat. Another beast snapped from behind, claws catching
Leofric’s POVI struck the ground with both feet, the impact reverberating up my spine. My lungs burned as if the very act of returning from death cost me breath I didn’t have to spare. Around me, the Bone Seer’s monstrosities closed in, their claws gleaming with marrow-stained light.I should have faltered, but instead I felt the rush of Morwenna’s sacrifice still coursing through me—the tether of her soul half-burned, half-offered, anchoring me to the living. It was fire and fury, but also grief. Every time I swung my blade, I felt her heartbeat echoing with mine, and the thought nearly broke me.The Bone Seer’s voice cut through the chaos like rusted steel.“You crawl back from the grave only to feed my children, Leofric. You belong to me.”Her words dragged at something deep inside. Shadows stirred beneath my skin, remnants of the corrupted self I had battled in the dream realm. I gritted my teeth and lunged forward, slashing through the first wave of bone-stitched horrors. They f
Leofric POVBlood sang in my veins as if the earth itself had poured fire into me. My lungs burned, but I relished the pain—it was proof I was alive again. The Bone Seer stood before me in her cathedral of rot, her skeletal crown flickering with shadows that whispered like a thousand curses. Her monsters crowded the hall, gnashing teeth and dripping hunger, their bodies stitched together from the carcasses of old wars.I should have been broken. I had just clawed my way back from death, my soul barely pieced together after Morwenna’s sacrifice. Yet I felt more awake than ever, every sense sharp, every thought burning clear. The Seer hissed my name as if spitting poison.“You were meant to remain silent in the ground. Yet here you stand, defying destiny.”“Destiny never belonged to you,” I growled, gripping the sword that shimmered with the glow of blood-oaths and broken vows. “And neither does she.”Morwenna’s face flashed in my mind. Her sacrifice, her pain, her strength—half her sou