All Chapters of BONE CROWN : Chapter 151 - Chapter 155

“Now, you can remember why they gave you my face.”Lyra waited for an explanation, but the woman offered nothing more. She stood beyond the broken threshold, wearing Lyra’s features with unsettling familiarity. Even the small scar near her brow was identical. Across the chamber, the First Queen kept her distance from the suspended Crown fragments, while the stranger remained on his knees, his head bowed.That frightened Lyra more than the name the woman had whispered.The stranger had faced the ancient prisoner without surrendering. He had walked through the Gate when everyone else feared what waited beyond it. Yet one word from this woman had brought him to his knees, and whatever he had seen in her face had stripped away his confidence.“What was that name?” Lyra asked.Neither answered.She turned to the stranger. “You recognized it.”His jaw tightened. He kept his eyes lowered until she ordered him to look at her. When he finally raised his head, she saw something beyond ordinary

The darkness answered in Lyra’s voice.Cael caught her around the waist and dragged her away from the widening crack. The sound followed them, rising through the palace foundations and slipping between the stones beneath their feet. It carried the familiar rasp of her voice, down to the slight break that came whenever she was frightened but refused to admit it. Each repetition sounded more convincing than the last. Lyra tried to tell herself that the thing below was copying her, but the words seemed to form somewhere behind her own teeth.“Stop!” the First Queen shouted.The chamber shuddered. Every fragment of the Crown dropped at once, striking the floor hard enough to send dust spilling from the ceiling. The crack between Lyra and the Queen widened, splitting a narrow path through the stone.Cael moved in front of her. His legs shook under him, and the silver veins at his throat had turned almost white. Lyra caught his arm before he could lose his balance.“Stay close,” he muttered

“It was my life, wasn't it?”Lyra's question came out quietly, but everyone in the chamber heard it.The First Queen kept her eyes closed. Across from her, the other woman remained on her knees, her hands resting against the broken stone as though she needed something solid beneath her to remain upright. Neither answered.Lyra looked from one to the other. “Whatever he sacrificed, it had something to do with me. So tell me what happened.”Cael tightened his grip around her wrist. “Don't let that thing decide what you believe before you hear the truth.”“Then someone should tell me the truth.”He had no answer for her. His breathing had become shallow, and she could feel the faint tremor running through his fingers. Whatever lay behind the lock inside his chest was still pressing against it.Lyra turned towards the kneeling woman. “You knew my father.”“Yes.”The answer came so quickly that Lyra almost missed it.“Who was he?”The woman lifted her face. Her eyes were wet, though no tea