Chapter Forty-six

Heart of the Storm

The closer we came, the heavier the air became.

Every breath I took burned like smoke. The crimson glow ahead pulsed with a rhythm that matched the beat of my own heart, dragging me forward. The mark on my palm throbbed, alive and angry.

Lucien walked beside me in silence, his expression carved from stone. Shadows rolled off him in waves, shielding us from the tendrils of red mist that reached out like claws.

“Don’t look into the light,” he warned softly. “It feeds on recognition.”

I kept my gaze fixed on the black glass beneath my boots, but the pull was growing stronger. Mona’s voice whispered faintly in my mind — not words, just the sound of laughter, familiar and cruel.

“I can feel her,” I murmured.

Lucien nodded once. “She knows you’re close. The bond between you is her anchor. If she breaks it, she’ll destroy half of this realm in the process.”

“Then let’s make sure she doesn’t.”

The path narrowed into a bridge of shadow that stretched across a bottomless chasm. Beneath it, red lightning flared, illuminating faces trapped in the dark — lost souls screaming soundlessly.

Lucien extended his hand. “Stay near me.”

I took it without hesitation. His power wrapped around mine like smoke and light entwined. The bridge trembled beneath our steps but held.

When we reached the other side, the world opened.

The heart of the Shadowlands spread before us — a vast hall of obsidian, cracked through with veins of molten red. At its center rose a throne made of bones and shattered mirrors, glowing faintly.

And on that throne… she sat.

Mona.

Her beauty was wrong now — too perfect, too still. Her skin shimmered like glass, her eyes twin embers of crimson fire. Her gown flowed like liquid blood, and around her, the air bent in worship.

“Well,” she said, her voice smooth as silk and sharp as blades. “The prodigal cousin returns. And she brought the King of Shadows himself. How poetic.”

I took a step forward, ignoring the way the ground pulsed beneath me. “What have you done, Mona?”

She laughed softly. “What you never could. I broke the rules. I stopped kneeling. I took what the moon refused to give me.”

Lucien’s voice cut through the air, cold and commanding. “You’ve turned my realm into a graveyard.”

Mona’s gaze slid toward him, her smile deepening. “You speak as if you didn’t build it from one. Don’t look so righteous, Shadow King. You and I are not so different.”

Lucien’s shadows flared, coiling around his hands like living flame. “You’re nothing like me.”

“Oh?” She rose from her throne, the motion fluid, almost serpentine. “You hide your hunger behind balance. I embrace mine.”

Her eyes turned to me, burning brighter. “Tell me, Kimberly… when you look at him, do you see your savior, or your doom?”

“Enough,” I snapped. “You’re poisoning yourself, Mona. This power— it’s killing you.”

She smiled sadly, and for a heartbeat, I saw the woman she once was — proud, wounded, desperate. “Maybe. But at least it’s mine.”

She lifted her hand, and the throne behind her exploded into shards. Red mist poured from the cracks in the floor, rising like a storm. The air vibrated, and suddenly the ground between us split open — a ring of crimson flame separating her from us.

Lucien moved instantly, pulling me back as the shadows surged. “She’s trying to trap us!”

Mona’s laughter filled the hall. “No, Lucien. I’m freeing her.”

The mark on my palm burned white-hot. I gasped, clutching it, as energy rippled through me. Mona raised her arms, her voice echoing.

“Blood to blood, moon to moon — the bond completes!”

Lucien’s eyes widened. “She’s sealing the link!”

Pain tore through my chest. My knees buckled. I saw flashes — Mona’s memories, her rage, her loneliness, her hunger. I felt it all as if it were my own.

Lucien caught me before I hit the ground, his voice harsh and distant. “Fight her, Kimberly! She’s inside your mind—don’t let her root!”

I gasped, forcing my focus through the pain. “She wants my power… the light…”

Lucien’s eyes burned. “Then drown her in it!”

The words struck deep. I reached inward, calling to the moonlight buried inside me. It responded — wild, fierce, alive. The mark on my hand flared silver, and for the first time, I felt something break.

Mona screamed.

The red flame around us flickered violently, dimming under the surge of light. Her body convulsed, the power recoiling against her.

Lucien moved beside me, his voice a dark command. “Now!”

We struck together — his shadows and my light colliding in a spiral of power that split the air. The blast hit Mona square in the chest, throwing her backward against the cracked wall.

When the light faded, the hall was silent.

Mona staggered, clutching her chest, crimson smoke spilling from her mouth. Her eyes glowed faintly, not with fury this time — but with disbelief.

“You think this ends with me?” she rasped. “You think you can kill what the moon itself blessed?”

Lucien’s expression was grim. “If the moon blessed you, it has a cruel sense of humor.”

Mona’s laughter came weak but wild. “You’ve only delayed it. The next blood moon rises soon… and when it does—”

Her body flickered, turning half-transparent, as if the realm itself was rejecting her.

“Mona!” I shouted, stepping forward, but Lucien caught my arm.

“She’s not dying,” he said quietly. “She’s escaping.”

And before I could stop her, Mona dissolved completely — a storm of crimson light vanishing into the cracks of the Shadowlands.

The silence that followed felt endless.

Lucien finally spoke, his voice low. “She’s retreating to the mortal world. The next moon will rise there.”

I looked down at the mark on my hand — still glowing faintly, still tethered.

“Then so will we,” I said.

Lucien met my gaze, and for the first time, I saw a spark of something fierce in his eyes. “Then let the hunt continue.”

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