Semua Bab CROWNED BY BLOOD: Bab 71 - Bab 80

Seraphina moves through the corridors of Hollowshade like a ghost haunting her own past, and every footstep she takes reverberates through my bones with the weight of memory and loss. The curse whispers that I should go to her, should end this pathetic attempt at whatever she thinks she's doing, but I can't bring myself to move from this throne that has become both my seat of power and my prison.The connection between us has always been stronger than blood, deeper than magic. Even before the curse, I could sense her moods, feel her presence like sunlight warming my skin. Now, twisted by the darkness that lives in my veins, that connection has become something more invasive, more intimate. I experience her movements through the castle as if I were walking beside her, feeling her heartbeat synchronizing with my own across the distance that separates monster from child.The corridors feel like a mausoleum because that's what I've made them. Every breath in this place is borrowed from th

The smell reaches me before the news does, cutting through the stale air of the throne room like a blade through silk. Betrayal has a scent sharp, metallic, laced with the cold tang of winter air slipping through a half-open door. It carries with it the particular ache that comes from wounds inflicted by those who were once close enough to know exactly where to cut deepest.My children's scent. Each one distinct, familiar as my own heartbeat, embedded in my memory from the days when I would bury my face in their hair after nightmares and breathe in the sweet warmth of their trust. Alexander's scent carries hints of steel and determination, the smell of someone who has learned to carry weapons but hasn't yet learned to love them. Seraphina holds traces of wildflowers and storm-charged air, magic crackling just beneath her skin like lightning waiting to be born. And Kai Jr. my quietest child, my shadow-walker, his scent is harder to pin down, shifting and elusive like mist at dawn, but

Another mirror was standing there. Dust motes danced in the pale moonlight that filtered through cracked windows, creating an almost ethereal atmosphere that felt foreign in my realm of perpetual shadow. I had been drawn here by something I couldn't figure, pulled through corridors I hadn't walked in years by an invisible thread that tugged at the hollow space beneath my ribs. My bare feet made no sound against the cold stone, but each step felt weighted with significance, as though I were walking toward either salvation or damnation, perhaps both.But when I drew closer, the surface stirred, catching the pale glow of Hollowshade's torches and bending it into something softer, gentler. The harsh orange light that usually threw everything into stark, unforgiving relief became golden honey, warm as summer afternoons I could barely remember. My heart clenched before my mind could catch it, before I could erect the usual walls of ice and fury that protected me from feeling anything beyon

They had taken him from me. My children, my blood, my betrayers. In the shadows of my palace they plotted, whispering like thieves, and I had thought myself clever enough to outmaneuver them. I had sworn that no one could steal Kai Jr. from my arms. Yet here he stood at my chamber doors, pale as frost, his outline flickering like a candle that the wind has already claimed.They thought they saved him only to destroy him futher.His eyes were no longer the eyes I knew, light leaking through fractures that bled into the air. His body stuttered against the fabric of reality, as though time itself rejected him. He was here and not here, real and unraveling. The very air around him shimmered with instability, bending light in ways that made my vision swim. When he moved, it was with the hesitation of someone learning to exist again, each step a negotiation with a world that no longer recognized his claim to space.I had seen many horrors in my reign. I had witnessed souls torn from bodies

The sky bled red when the horns of war sounded. I felt it before I heard it: the pounding of feet, the smell of fire, the heartbeat of my children rising against me.The sensation hit me like a blow, driving me to my knees in the center of my throne room. For a moment, I couldn't breathe. The connection between mother and child, that primal bond that had once been my greatest strength, now transmitted their hatred like a poison flooding my veins. I could feel Alexander's rage burning white-hot in his chest, could taste Seraphina's tears as she steeled herself for what she believed she had to do. They were coming for me with the weight of righteousness behind them, and part of me, the part that still remembered nursing them through fevers and singing them to sleep wanted to simply open the gates and let them end this nightmare.But the curse had other plans.Hollowshade's walls trembled under their assault. The ancient stones, which had stood for centuries against siege engines and mag