CROWNED BY BLOOD
"Not to you, not to the curse, not to the memory of who I was.
I met his eyes without flinching, seeing my own past reflected in their black depths. "I will not wear it again. Not for power. Not for wholeness.
His smile thinned, cruel satisfaction at my refusal somehow. "You speak of light," he said, and his voice carried disappointment that I couldn't tell was real, "yet it's darkness that still listens to your name. Do you think your students don't see the shadow that clings to you? Do you imagine they don't smell the corruption that still taints your soul?"