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THE CROWN AND THE COST
Last Updated:
2025-07-10 23:56:34
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THE HEIR AND THE HOLLOW VOW TO STAND BEFORE FLAME
Chapter 26 – [ Before the Journey] POV – Seraphine She stood before the war table, candlelight flickering over old maps and broken seals. Seven days. That was all she had. Seven days to cross the haunted pass, enter the Hollow Seat, and face the Tribunal who had once served her mother... and then helped bury her memory. Seraphine looked down at the sigil etched into the wood — the first Hollow King’s mark. It pulsed faintly beneath her palm. “I need everyone who still stands with me,” she said. Riven, at her side, didn’t hesitate. “You have them.” Vael leaned against the far wall, arms crossed. “Some of them.” Seraphine’s gaze snapped to him. “If there’s something I need to know, say it.” He stepped closer, drawing a scroll from beneath his coat — old, brittle, the seal burned away. “The Tribunal does not just rule,” he said. “They bind. Every queen of flame must kneel at the Seat or face the Reaping Clause.” Reyna’s voice was low. “Execution?” “No,” Vael said. “Erasur
THE HEIR AND THE HOLLOW VOW WHAT WAITS BENEATH THE FLAME
**Chapter 25 – **\Whispers and Warnings****\POV – Seraphine**The dream began with ash.It always did.She stood on the edge of a field that used to be her home. The manor smoldered behind her. The Hollow Court’s banners lay torn in the mud. And everywhere, bones — not of enemies, but of *her people.*She was alone.Until she wasn’t.A figure stepped from the fog, faceless and tall. The same one she’d seen before in the fire.> “You wear the crown, but it wears you more,” it said.> “There will be no peace, only obedience.”Seraphine turned to run—but the earth cracked beneath her.And from that crack, **the crown whispered.**> “Give in.> Let go.> Be more than girl, more than queen.> Be *hollow.*”She screamed.---She woke in sweat and flame.Her room’s torches had all ignited at once. The fire on her palms flickered of its own will — not summoned, but *reacting*.Riven was already there, sword half-drawn.“You were burning in your sleep,” he said, crossing to her side. “You ke
THE HEIR AND THE HOLLOW VOW THE CROWN AND THE COST
*Chapter 24 – : Embers Beneath the Throne*POV – Commander Reyna*She had smelled the smoke before the messenger reached her.The heart-chamber was three wings away, hidden behind blood wards and flame-bound seals — but Reyna had led the Queen’s Guard long enough to know when fire changed. This wasn’t ordinary. This was *summoning fire* — the kind that didn’t just burn, but *chose*.And Seraphine had stepped right into it.Reyna stood just outside the sealed chamber now, arms crossed, jaw tight. The runes still glowed on the stone, flickering with residual power. The guards looked to her, unsure whether to be terrified or amazed.Behind the doors, they said, the Reaper had been destroyed.Behind the doors, they said, the queen had *risen*.But Reyna… wasn’t sure.She remembered the last queen who touched the crown.She remembered how her eyes had changed.> “Power always takes something in return,” Reyna muttered.And the Hollow never gave back what it stole.---**\POV Shift – Serap
THE HEIR AND THE HOLLOW VOW WHEN FIRE REMEMBERS BLOOD
**Chapter 23 – When Fire Remembers Blood****\[ The Impact]**The scream came first.Not a sound of pain — but of *warning*. A guard. Somewhere near the queen’s heart-chamber. It was cut short mid-shout, swallowed by something sharp.Seraphine was already moving.Flame surged beneath her feet as she sprinted through the lower corridor, Riven at her side, blades drawn, cloak flaring like wings.The manor’s ancient bones groaned around them. Fire lanterns flickered. Wards screamed silently in her veins.Too late. *Too late.*Riven shouted behind her — “There! Down!”They turned a corner——and saw the bodies.Three guards. All fallen. No sign of a fight. No burn marks. Just blood on the stone, clean and final.The door to the **heart-chamber** had been shattered inward, runes bleeding gold light.Seraphine raised her hand.The flame did not come.That’s when she knew:**The Reaper was already inside.**---The heart-chamber was quiet.Soft. Cold.The crown lay on its pedestal — untouched
THE HEIR AND THE HOLLOW VOW THE BLADE BENEATH THE SKIN
Chapter 22 – ** Something in the Walls**The fire no longer soothed her.It still responded to her command, still obeyed her touch—but Seraphine had begun to notice a second sensation crawling at the edges of her magic.Something cold.Wrong.Watching.She stood at the window of her private chambers, far above the manor’s war rooms, overlooking the north gardens. The moonlight painted the stone silver, soft, almost peaceful.But her instincts were screaming.She turned.No one was there.But still... she *knew*.She’d always been able to sense when danger was near — a heat in the blood, a flicker in the flame. But this was different. This wasn’t heat. It was the *absence* of it.She walked slowly to the door, hand resting on the dagger at her hip. The air felt thicker, like walking through breath held too long.“Reyna,” she called softly through the guard’s wardstone. “Double the hall patrols. Quietly.”“Yes, Your Grace,” came the reply.She turned again.And that’s when she saw it:
THE HEIR AND THE HOLLOW VOW WHAT THE FIRE FORGETS
**Chapter 21 – **The Watcher in the Hall**The Vault door sealed behind her with a deep, bone-humming thud.The air in the corridor felt colder now. Still thick with old magic, but heavier — as if the manor itself sensed a shift in its mistress.Seraphine’s footsteps echoed down the hall, each one slower than the last.Her mother’s words still rang in her skull:> *Become the Flame. Or become the End.*Her fingers brushed the hilt of her dagger. The fire inside her wasn’t just responding anymore — it was anticipating. Hungry. Watching the world the way predators do, not prey.She paused before the spiral stair.The silence wasn’t empty.Someone was watching her.Her shoulders stiffened. She turned, eyes scanning the shadows between torch sconces. Nothing moved. No breath. No whisper.But she wasn’t wrong.Magic tingled at her neck. The same feeling she got in the Tribunal’s presence — unseen eyes, old and cruel.She whispered a warning in Hollow tongue, a charm of protection her moth
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