All Chapters of The Silver Pact: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

For three days, the Ironclaw vanguard had pushed south at a relentless pace,clad in dark plate armor, and rode in tight, disciplined lines along the narrow mountain pass.At the head of the column rode Gideon, mounted on his massive black warhorse. His dark cloak billowed behind his broad, armored shoulders, his hand never straying far from the heavy hilt of his broadsword. Beside him, riding close enough for their stirrups to brush with every stride, I sat atop my gray mare, wrapped tightly in my fur-lined mantle.To the soldiers marching behind us, I was their Sovereign Queen composed, sharp-eyed, and unyielding.To myself, I was burning alive from the inside out.With every mile we traveled south, the imperial map etched between my shoulder blades throbbed with an increasingly violent, agonizing heat. It was no longer a dull ache; it felt as though a molten dagger was being dragged repeatedly across my flesh. Every time the distant ley-lines beneath the Southern Waste surged, a sic

I stared at Emperor Markos. The man who had held me on his shoulders as a child, the man who shared my royal bloodline, stood before me in the damp, torch lit execution vault with a cold, detached sneer."You betrayed your own family, Uncle," I said, my voice shaking with raw, agonizing disbelief. I slowly pushed myself up from beside Julian, stepping into a defensive stance in front of my brother. "You handed a seven year old boy to a monster."Markos stepped forward, his fine silk robes sweeping across the dirt floor. He held his head high, unbothered by the damp horror of the dungeon."I made a decision, Lyra," Markos replied smoothly, waving his hand as if dismissing a minor inconvenience. "The shadow vanguard was at our gates. The southern army was unready. I preserved our bloodline by giving Malakor what he demanded. It was a simple decision to keep the palace standing.""A decision ?" I spat, sovereign rage rising through the heartbreak in my chest. "You sold my brother to buy

Inside our private tent, hours before we were scheduled to go into the Southern Waste, the silence felt thicker than lead.I paced back and forth across the rug, my daggers clattering against my thighs with every agitated step. Gideon stood at the central map table, staring down at the detailed layout of the desert with a hard expression."You think I didn't see it?" I slammed my palm against the corner of the wooden table, making the small brass markers jump. "I saw your face back in the archive, Gideon. I know what you're planning."Gideon didn't look up right away. He calmly adjusted a troop marker on the parchment. "I'm planning our line of approach, Lyra.""Don't lie to me!" I shouted, tears of pure, agonizing frustration blinding my eyes. "You're planning to let the First King's soul possess your body! You intend to act as the living vessel so someone can strike you down!"Gideon finally lifted his head. His golden eyes were pitch-dark with an intense, unyielding shadows. "It's

"Lyra, stop! Stop right now!" Gideon’s voice screamed through the roaring storm of magic, filed with panic. "Pull back!"I ignored his desperate pleas. I put my bare hands even deeper into the scorching, white hot sand, driving my fingers past the surface until the heat charred my skin.Air. Water. Fire. Earth.I forced every remaining drop of my elemental reserves down through my arms and straight into the dark subterranean ley lines. The power tore through my body like liquid lightning, ripping my muscles and burning my veins from the inside out."Break the cages” I shrieked, forcing my magic to surge through the underground stone channels. "Release them!"An explosion hit the desert floor as my combined elemental magic struck the iron locks of the underground holding cells. Deep beneath the arena, thousands of cage doors shattered severing the siphon draining the captured imperial citizens.With the siphon destroyed, the fifty-foot wall of crimson blood-fire gave a violent, shudd

The dark shadow-tendril slammed me onto the altar stone with bone rattling force. Before I could scramble away or push myself up, Malakor stepped onto the platform, pinning my shoulders down against the cold granite."Finally," Malakor whispered, his breath smelling of dark ash and old iron. "The true vessel."I thrashed against his crushingly heavy grip, but my drained body refused to obey. I could only watch in terror as he raised his left hand, drawing a wicked, jagged dark dagger from the folds of his silk robes. The dark metal dripped with a terrifying purple sheen that hummed in resonance with the glowing crown on his head."Release her" Gideon screamed from the edge of the dais, his voice raw and bleeding with pure agony.Malakor paid him no mind. He brought the dark dagger down until the icy tip rested directly over my heart, pressing hard enough to pierce through my tunic and draw a thin drop of blood."With this living blood, the rift shall open," Malakor intoned, his glowin