Chapter Forty-seven

The Echo of the King

The Shadowlands were not what the old scrolls described.

They were alive.

Mist moved like breath, and every echo seemed to have its own heartbeat. Selene walked slowly, her boots leaving faint trails of silver on the glass-black ground. Beside her, Kaen padded silently, his massive form a streak of shifting shadow.

No sun, no stars—only the light that came from within her and the dim shimmer that rippled across the horizon.

After hours of walking, they reached what looked like the ruins of a bridge, its arches half-submerged in fog. Etched into the stone was a symbol she knew from her dreams: a crescent within a circle, split down the middle by a crack of light.

“Lucien’s mark,” she murmured.

Kaen growled low, ears flattening.

“I feel it too,” she whispered. “Something’s watching.”

The air thickened. Out of the fog came a faint hum—neither sound nor song but vibration, as if the world itself remembered a voice it once obeyed. The light around her pendant flared, and the shadows ahead took form.

A figure stepped forward, built of smoke and memory. Its eyes glowed the color of dying embers.

“Who enters the realm of the silent?” the apparition asked.

Selene drew in a steady breath. “Selene of the Luna line. Child of balance.”

The figure regarded her for a long moment. Then it smiled—not cruelly, but with the weight of centuries.

“Blood of Kimberly. Breath of Lucien.”

Her pulse jumped. “You knew them.”

“I was made from what he left behind,” the specter said. “An echo of the Shadow King’s will.”

Selene’s throat tightened. “Then you can help me. I’m looking for the Heart of Shadow.”

At the mention of it, the mist quivered. The figure’s shape faltered, flickering like a flame in the wind.

“The Heart sleeps,” it said. “But something else stirs to claim it. The void moves beneath the roots of this realm, older than the moon, older than balance itself.”

“Where do I find it?”

The specter raised a hand, pointing toward the endless dark ahead. “Follow the river of glass until you reach the place where light forgets to shine. There the Heart waits—but it will test you. Only one who accepts both halves of herself may touch it.”

“I will.”

The echo smiled faintly. “Then begin by knowing fear.”

Before she could answer, the ground trembled. Cracks spidered across the black surface, and the mist turned red. Kaen snarled, placing himself between Selene and the widening fissure.

From the depths, a shape crawled out—liquid shadow with no face, no form, only hunger. It screamed without sound, and every note tore at Selene’s chest.

The echo of Lucien spread its arms. “Your first lesson.”

Selene raised her hands, letting light gather at her palms. “Kaen, stay close.”

The creature lunged. She threw her light forward; it burned through the fog, but the shadow absorbed it, twisting and striking again. Kaen leapt, slamming into it with teeth of flame and darkness.

Still, the thing re-formed, coiling around her like smoke. Pain flared along her arms. She felt her power falter—too bright, too pure. The light was feeding the darkness instead of banishing it.

Lucien’s voice echoed in memory: When light stands alone, it blinds itself.

She let the light die. For a heartbeat, there was only darkness. Then she reached inward, into the quieter place within—the same pulse she’d felt when she touched the twin blades.

Shadow answered.

It flowed from her hands, meeting the creature’s body, not to destroy but to bind. Light followed, threading through it until both forces merged. The monster shuddered once… then dissolved into silver mist.

Silence.

Selene sank to her knees, breathing hard. The echo’s voice drifted to her, soft and approving.

“Balance is not conquest. It is acceptance.”

She looked up. “That was the test?”

“One of many. The Heart lies ahead, beyond the valley of echoes. But remember this—each victory awakens what sleeps below.”

Before she could speak, the specter began to fade.

“Wait—what awakens?” she demanded.

The voice came faintly, already dissolving into the mist.

“The Third. The one neither light nor shadow could contain.”

Then it was gone.

Selene turned toward the dark horizon, Kaen’s eyes gleaming beside her. Somewhere far ahead, a faint red shimmer pulsed through the fog like a heartbeat.

She tightened her grip on her pendant. “Then we move.”

Kaen gave a low, rumbling growl of agreement.

And together, they stepped into the deeper dark, following the glimmer of a power older than both moon and night—

the echo of a king,

and the beginning of whatever waited next.

---