Semua Bab Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the Dark King: Bab 51 - Bab 60

The chamber trembled again—deeper this time, the vibration rolling through Aria’s bones like the warning growl of a realm on the brink. The air thickened with the metallic taste of magic unraveling. The echo’s presence dimmed, his edges flickering like a candle caught between two breaths. The vision of the widening fracture lingered behind Aria’s eyes, pulsing like an afterimage burned into her veins.She tried to inhale, but the breath stuttered, sharp and thin, as though the air itself refused to settle inside her chest. Her hands trembled violently, fingers curling against her ribs. She didn’t feel like a prophecy or a power or a bridge between realms.She felt like a crack herself—something fragile, splitting down the center.Erevan’s arm tightened around her waist.“Aria. Breathe.”His voice was low, frayed at the edges, a thread woven from fear he refused to show but couldn’t fully hide. Her body leaned into him instinctively, as if her exhaustion recognized him before her mind

The throne loomed before them like a heartbeat carved into stone—alive, aware, pulsing with a rhythm that resonated through Aria’s bones. Each step she and Erevan took toward it stirred the air, coaxing the sigils beneath their feet into a brighter glow. The entire chamber responded to them, its magic humming in anticipation, as if the Seat recognized their approach and inhaled on their behalf.Aria squeezed Erevan’s hand so tightly her knuckles ached. He didn’t loosen his grip. If anything, he tightened it, his shadows creeping up her arm and curling around her side in a protective embrace. His breathing was uneven—she could feel the strain rolling through his body, the fight he waged against the realm’s burning magic every time he moved.“You’re hurting,” she whispered as they approached the final step.“I’m fine,” he lied.His voice shook.Aria stopped. Erevan stood one step behind her, breath coming harsher now, shadows flickering like torn sails in a storm. He looked at the thron

The void shuddered like a living organism dragged back from the brink of death. Aria felt the tremor move through the space around them—not a collapse this time, but something like a breath, a slow inhale from a creature waking after a long, haunted sleep. The cracks of light and shadow suspended in the air pulsed with unsteady rhythm, as if uncertain whether to heal or split open again.Aria’s fingers dug into Erevan’s as the magic throbbed between them. Their hands were still bound by that blinding thread of fused power—light spiraling from her palm, shadow unfurling from his, the two twisting around each other like warring serpents forced into a single coil.“Keep your focus steady,” Erevan murmured, voice strained, his breath shallow from the crushing pressure of this place. “If your light pulls too hard—”“I know,” she whispered. “And if your shadow surges—”“It will break us both.”He didn’t sugarcoat it. He didn’t hide the danger.But his fingers tightened around hers, anchorin

The path that unfurled before them looked alive—woven from two opposing forces that shouldn’t have been able to coexist. Dark threads of shadow rippled alongside ribbons of molten silver light, twisting together in a single, winding trail that hovered over the endless void. It stretched on farther than Aria could see, curving into a horizon where the light darkened and the dark glowed, a paradox made into a road.Aria’s breath shuddered. The wraith’s destruction still echoed through her bones; her fingertips tingled with leftover magic, her chest ached with the strain of using more power than she had ever touched before. Her knees felt unstable beneath her, but Erevan’s arm stayed firm around her waist, grounding her against the weight of exhaustion.He drew in a slow, unsteady breath. “That thing didn’t come by accident.”Aria’s gaze remained on the path, its pulsing rhythm strangely hypnotic. “No… it didn’t.”The wraith had tested them—its strikes targeted their balance, their bond,

The path beneath them pulsed with a low, rhythmic thrum—like a distant heartbeat awakening. The moment the Sovereign dissolved into the void, the light-and-shadow trail began to stretch forward again, lengthening into an endless corridor of shifting radiance. Aria felt the pulse of it under her feet, a steady vibration that echoed through her bones. When she drew a breath, the air tasted different—sharper, alive, saturated with the magic the Sovereign had forced into her chest.Erevan stayed close, one hand braced on the small of her back, the other hovering near her arm as if afraid she would collapse again. His shadows curled anxiously around her ankles, restless and protective, reacting to every tremor in her body.“How do you feel?” His voice was low, roughened with worry.Aria didn’t know how to answer. The truth was too vast, too heavy. She felt… full. Overfull. As if her magic had become a storm with no horizon, surging beneath her skin in waves that didn’t belong to any single