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Crown of shadows

Author: Renaye H
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-19 07:00:19

CHAPTER 17 —

The underworld never truly slept.

Even in the quiet hours—if hours could even be measured down here—the realm pulsed like a great sleeping beast. The shadows breathed. The molten rivers murmured. The stone spires hummed with ancient power that whispered secrets into the darkness.

And in the center of it all, Malik and I stood at the precipice of something that neither realm had ever seen before.

A demon and a mortal-turned-something-else.

A bond powerful enough to shift the balance of two worlds.

A love strong enough to ignite war… or end it.

Malik’s hand rested on my lower back as we stood on a towering black cliff overlooking the expanse of the underworld. The air shimmered with heat and cold, mixing like two opposing breaths caught in the same throat.

“Do you feel it?” he asked softly.

I closed my eyes. The mark on my chest pulsed, sending tendrils of warmth through my ribs, down my arms, into the stone beneath my feet. The entire realm responded. A low rumble. A sigh
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  • The Devil you called   Throne of 2 shadows

    ⸻CHAPTER 18“Throne of Two Shadows”The Elders’ departure left the Hall of Ash humming like it had swallowed a storm. Dust drifted from the cracked ceiling. The molten veins in the floor pulsed brighter, reacting to the power that still clung to my skin like heat.Malik hadn’t stopped staring at me.Not in fear.Not in shock.But in the kind of reverence that made my knees weak.“You don’t understand what you just did,” he murmured, voice low. “Sarai… they bowed. The Elders bowed.”I took a breath that trembled. “I didn’t even know what I was doing.”“That’s what terrifies me,” he said, brushing his fingers over my cheek. “Because you didn’t do it—you became it.”Before I could respond, the ground shuddered.Not from danger.From acknowledgment.The underworld had felt me.Accepted me.Claimed me.And I felt it too—like a second heartbeat under my own, syncing with mine, whispering:You belong.Malik stepped back, black smoke curling from his fingertips. “There’s one more place I nee

  • The Devil you called   Crown of shadows

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  • The Devil you called   Descent into darkness

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