Page 175 of Haunted Crowns
Kareon did not care. He attacked again, feral and unstoppable. He was a blur of muscle and fury, moving like a force of nature. Kriponius raised his hand, and Sanguine Oath answered.
The moment Eris saw it, the world stopped.
No.
Her heart crashed against her ribs. That was Stephan’s sword—his oath, his life, now clutched in a monster’s hand. Something inside her tore—a deep, silent snap. Breath vanished. The world blurred.
Then the pain hit. It wasn’t grief. It was devastation.
A sound tore from her throat, too broken to be a scream.
Stephan.
Her heart. Her anchor. Her reason.
Gone.
She pushed herself up, staggered, and fell. She clawed at the dirt, tears scalding her face. Her bones screamed, but she didn’t care.
He was gone. And she was fire.
Her voice cracked the silence. “You stole him.” Her eyes locked on Kriponius, burning with a hatred even the gods might fear. “May the spirits shred your name from every stone. May even the dust forget you.”
Kriponius did not turn. His gaze remained fixed on Kareon, the final barrier between him and Seraphina reborn. He lunged, and Kareon met him head-on. Fangs clashed with steel, monster against monster, and the battlefield trembled. The Dread King moved too fast, his form a blur of lethal precision. Sanguine Oath cut the air, striking Kareon’s shoulder instead of his heart. The pain burned, but he kept fighting.
Kareon pulled him close and sank his fangs into the vampire’s throat, a bite that would have dropped any lesser creature. But Kriponius was not lesser. He tore Kareon away and hurled him aside like discarded prey.
Sanguine Oath struck again, carving deep across Kareon’s chest. Pain exploded through him. Then came a final, brutal kick, and a body once unbreakable collapsed. He hit the groundand did not rise. His chest was torn open. His breath came in wet, uneven gasps. The world narrowed to blood and pain.
Through the dark, a voice reached him. “KAREON!”
Her scream ripped through the wreckage, sharp and broken. She stumbled, then dropped to her hands and knees, crawling through blood and ruin until she reached him, collapsed beside him, hands shaking as she pressed them to his wounds. Her body curled over his, small and trembling, drenched in his blood.
Her head dropped to his chest. Her fingers knotted into his fur as she clung to him, desperate to hold time still. Their eyes met, and in that one look, they both knew it was the end. Kriponius would finish him before Kareon’s body could regenerate.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, voice cracked and bare.
Her tears struck his face, hot and endless.
Kareon couldn’t speak. But he made a sound, faint and hoarse, more breath than voice.
She understood.
Her chest clenched as grief tore through her. Her hands gripped tighter, trying to stretch the moment, to hold back the blow she knew was coming.
"No," she whispered, raw and trembling. "Don’t say that. Please don’t. You think you failed me?” Her voice faltered. “You didn’t. You saved me in ways even fate couldn’t touch.”
Kareon let out another broken, pleading sound.
Her lips shaped a fragile smile as her voice fell to a whisper. “Please don’t look at me like that…You know I’d rather die with you than leave you behind.” She cupped his face, fingers sliding into his hair, anchoring him with the love that refused to let go. "I love you, Kareon Duskbane. In this life. In the next. Until the world is nothing but dust and silence…Forever."
A single tear escaped him.
Life had never shown him kindness. But this—this was cruelty beyond measure. To hear the words he had waited a lifetime for…only to die with them on his lips.
Kriponius had stepped aside and watched the cycle repeat. Seraphina, his chosen, had given herself to a Lycan once more. His blood burned. His claws dug into his palms. The scent of their bond, of that beast on her skin, was suffocating.
The way she whispered his name.
