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Chapter 32: The First Human Breath

Author: Cyndi Vale
last update Petsa ng paglalathala: 2026-10-22 19:00:00

POV Adrain

Something is hammering inside my head.

I think it's the cathedral. Another wall coming down. I look up at the ceiling, and nothing is falling.

Then I understand the sound isn't around me. It's in me.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Fast and wet and clumsy, like a bird trying to break out of a box.

"Natalie." It comes out as a gasp. My hand flies to my chest, and under my fingers it's there, slamming against my ribs. "Natalie, I can hear it."

"Adrian?" Sh

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  • The Blood Empress & Her Mortal King    Chapter 32: The First Human Breath

    POV AdrainSomething is hammering inside my head.I think it's the cathedral. Another wall coming down. I look up at the ceiling, and nothing is falling.Then I understand the sound isn't around me. It's in me.Thud. Thud. Thud. Fast and wet and clumsy, like a bird trying to break out of a box."Natalie." It comes out as a gasp. My hand flies to my chest, and under my fingers it's there, slamming against my ribs. "Natalie, I can hear it.""Adrian?" She's on her knees in the broken glass, a few steps away. Her eyes are still gold. "What's wrong? What is it?""It won't stop.""What won't?""My heart."She stares at me. Then she laughs, one cracked little sound. "That's good, isn't it? That's good.""I don't know."I try to stand. My legs don't listen. Three hundred years of perfect balance, and the floor tilts under me like the deck of a ship.So I reach for it. The speed, the strength, the heat

  • The Blood Empress & Her Mortal King    Chapter 31: The Ultimate Sacrifice

    POV Adrian“Tell me he’s lying.”Natalie doesn’t answer. The gold in her eyes is the only light left in the cathedral, and it isn’t looking at me. It’s looking through me.“Natalie.”“I can’t.” Her voice cracks. “Adrian, I remember all of it. I can’t tell you it’s a lie.”“You’re a maid. You told me that yourself. You fold sheets.”“I know what I told you.”“Then say it again.”“I don’t know what I am!”“I do,” Williams says.He’s still on his knees in the rubble, one arm hanging wrong, and he’s still smiling. I want to put my fist through it.“Every drop of gold in your veins started with her, boy. You’ve spent three hundred years running from a Council that was built to keep her asleep.” He coughs blood onto the marble. “Do you know what I spent five hundred years preventing? This. Exactly this.”“Then you failed.”“Did I?” He lifts his good hand. “Elders. Now.”All nine of them open their eyes at the same time. That’s the part that makes my skin crawl. Not a word between them. Not

  • The Blood Empress & Her Mortal King    Chapter 30: Awakening of the Progenitor

    POV Natalie"Adriam." My mouth tastes like ash. "What did you just bind me to?"He doesn't answer. He's staring at his own chest like it betrayed him."Adrian!""I don't know.""You don't know?" Glass crunches under my palms as I push myself up. "You said you knew this ritual. You said""I said the last two who tried it died." His voice is wrecked. "I never said I knew what happens to the ones who live.""There weren't any who lived!""That's what worries me."I laugh. It comes out wrong, high and cracked. "You couldn't have mentioned that before I put my mouth on your arm?""Would it have changed your mind?"I open my mouth. Close it."No," I admit. "Probably not.""Then I saved us from the argument.""That isn't funny.""I'm not laughing." He finally looks at me. "Are you hurt? Anything. Tell me.""My chest feels..." I press my hand there. "Warm."I hear how that

  • The Blood Empress & Her Mortal King    Chapter 29: The Soul Binding Oath

    POV Adrian"Natalie. Look at me."She doesn't. Her eyes are locked on the altar, and they're wrong. White. No color, no pupils, nothing of her left in them."Natalie!"Her heels scrape across the marble. Something is dragging her, and there's nothing there but the altar, humming like a throat right before a scream.I wrap an arm around her waist and plant my boots. It doesn't matter. The floor slides under me like I weigh nothing. Three hundred years of strength, and I'm being hauled along like a child."Adrian." Her voice is thin, far away. "It's warm. It feels warm.""Don't say that.""It knows my name.""It knows everyone's name right before it kills them!""No." She smiles, and it's the worst thing I've ever seen. "It's not killing me. It's asking."Her knees give out. I catch all of her, and her skin is ice. Five minutes ago she was burning against me. Now her lips are going blue."Stay with me. Say something. Insult me.""You're... very loud.""There she is." My laugh cracks in

  • The Blood Empress & Her Mortal King    Chapter 28: Lucas Reckoning

    POV LucasLucas"Kill him!"Williams’ A scream hit the cathedral walls and came back at me twice. I felt it in my teeth."Commander! Did you hear me? Put your sword through the King. Now!"My sword was already out. I didn't remember drawing it.The King knelt on the marble between the altar steps and the ring of Elders, one palm flat on the stone, the other hand stretched toward me. His crown lay by the altar where it had rolled.I had taught him to hold a sword in this city. He was nine. He cried when he lost, and I told him that was allowed, as long as he picked the sword back up. He wasn't crying now. He looked like a man who had forgotten how."Lucas," he said. His voice was thin. Wrong. This was a man who used to shout down generals. "Please.""Your Majesty, you shouldn't be here. Nobody crosses the ring during the Red Moon rite. You know the law.""I know the law." He laughed, and it broke into a cough. "I wrote half of it.""He broke the circle!" Williams came down the altar st

  • The Blood Empress & Her Mortal King    Chapter 27: Battle for the Altar

    POV AdrianThe cathedral doors didn't open for me. I broke them.The wood cracked. One hinge tore out of the stone and rang across the marble like a bell. Then I was inside, and every guard in the nave turned around at once."Intruder!""It's him! Close ranks!""Don't let him reach the altar!"I didn't slow down. The first guard got his spear up. I knocked it wide and drove my sword under his arm. He folded without a sound. The second came at my left. I caught his wrist, snapped it, and threw him into a pillar.Two more rushed me. I took one blade on mine and kicked the other in the chest so hard he went through a row of pews."Adrian, please." The next one was young. His sword shook in his hands. "Don't make me do this.""Then move.""We have orders from the High Council!""I don't care who gave them."He swung. I stepped inside it and hit him with the pommel. He dropped.That was nine. Maybe

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