All Chapters of Crown of Betrayal: Chapter 61 - Chapter 67

The room felt smaller after the call ended.Kailee crossed the space without hesitation and settled into Zayden’s lap, turning sideways so her legs draped across his thighs, her arms curling loosely around his shoulders. It was instinctive, the way they moved together, the kind of closeness forged through years of trust and sharpened now by fear. Zayden’s hands came to her automatically—one braced at her lower back, the other resting against her thigh—grounding himself in the warmth of her presence as if it were the only solid thing left in the room.The sounds of Ancnix drifted in through the open window as they always had—distant training calls, the ring of steel, the low hum of a city built on strength and order—but something in them felt wrong now, distorted, like a familiar rhythm played just slightly out of time. Elora’s voice lingered in the air between them, steady but strained, carrying truths neither of them had wanted to hear yet both had felt building for weeks. She hadn’t

Three days passed in a quiet that felt deliberate, as though the world itself were holding its breath while they walked.The forest shifted gradually as they traveled deeper into Nethara’s heart, not with clear borders but with subtle interweaving — the broad, ancient trees of Finvarra’s domain giving way to silver-barked sentinels whose leaves caught light like cut crystal, their roots threading through soil rich with lifeflow. Moon-blooming flowers opened as dusk lingered longer than it should have, and vines traced with faint luminescence coiled around stone and trunk alike. It was not one forest, nor three, but something carefully balanced, magic and nature and strength layered so precisely it felt intentional. Elora sensed it everywhere — in the way the air pressed gently against her skin, in the way the ground seemed to steady beneath her feet — as though the land recognized her presence without yet daring to speak it aloud.When the trees finally parted, the temple revealed its

By the time the sun crested the trees, the land no longer resembled a simple clearing.Declan worked along the forest’s edge, shaping the earth where their side of the battlefield would stand. He did not touch the heart of the field — that space was left deliberately untouched, stretching wide and open beyond the treeline’s shadow. Flat enough for ranks of warriors to assemble. Broad enough to hold movement, magic, and war without constraint.Where he did work, the ground grew firm beneath his hands. Roots eased deeper into the soil, stones settling until the earth felt solid and reliable beneathfoot. The trees themselves leaned subtly inward, not crowding the space but offering shelter and vantage — a natural boundary that could hide movement, anchor defenses, and hold fast when lines broke.This was where they would begin.Briar chose their camp site with the same quiet intention. She positioned it near the treeline without letting it disappear into shadow, close enough for cover bu

The strategy meeting ended the way so many had lately — not with certainty, but with resolve.Elora remained standing at the head of the central table as the final markers were gathered, her palms braced against the scarred wood while Declan rolled the map closed with deliberate care. Selene straightened from her seat, armor whispering softly as she moved, already recalculating troop movements in her mind. Corren leaned back with a tired stretch, rubbing at his jaw as if the tension there had finally begun to ache.“We’ll adjust the western approach once the Farisee scouts return,” Selene said, already turning toward the tent flap. “If the Umbra are moving faster than we expect, we need to be ahead of them.”“We always are,” Corren replied lightly, though the humor didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Or at least we pretend well enough that no one notices when we’re not.”Declan lingered as the others began to move, his gaze shifting to Elora. “You held the room,” he said quietly. “They trus