Page 148 of Haunted Crowns
"You came in and shattered everything," he said. "Turned our world upside down. Changed the way we see it." He swallowed, eyes steady on hers. "You gave us something I didn’t think existed—hope."
Eris stiffened as a sharp, cruel ache bloomed in her chest. She turned toward the lake. The water sat too still, too silent.
"Hope," she echoed. "And war. And death."
A bitter truth, spoken to no one. But Kareon was there before she could move. His hands found her shoulders, steady. A wall against the weight she carried.
"Look at me." It wasn’t a plea. It was a command.
She obeyed, her breath hitching as his golden, fire-bright eyes met hers. His grip tightened, anchoring her.
"Peace was never ours, Eris," he said, voice like iron. "War’s the only language we ever spoke. Death—our oldest companion."
He exhaled slowly, the truth a weight in his lungs.
"But you… You made us believe it doesn’t have to be."
Her pulse faltered. She didn’t know if it was the words or the way he said them, as if each one were a blade, a promise.
Their eyes locked, feral and breathless. He wasn’t letting her go, not from this, not from the truth.
"You’re the sun breaking through a sky that’s only ever known night," he said. "And now you don’t get to dim."
A shuddering breath escaped her. She wanted to deny it, to argue that she had never asked for this, never wanted it. But she could not, because he was right, and that terrified her.
Kareon let her sit in that truth. Then he stepped forward. "Tomorrow, Lycans fight beside Firstbloods against the Obsidian Order. Do you understand the madness of that?" A disbelieving laugh broke from his chest. "Even saying it makes my blood curdle." He exhaled hard, raking a hand through his hair. Every muscle in his body was drawn tight. "Centuries of bloodshed have been undone. Because of you."
The truth hit her suddenly and inescapably. She had done this.
Eris swallowed, her breath trembling before it steadied. She stepped forward and placed her hand against his chest, right over his heart.
He stopped breathing.
Her fingers curled into his shirt as if she could stop time with her bare hands. "You speak like I did this alone. But I am onlywho I am because of all of you." Her voice faltered from the weight of truth.
The bond between them surged, like lightning beneath skin, as though the moon itself had tilted toward her.
Kareon did not move. He ached to touch her, to pull her in, to brand her with his love and kiss her until the world collapsed around them. But he stayed still. If he touched her first, she might run again.
The last time she had opened to him, it was the spirits in her blood who called, not the girl, who still believed that loving him meant betrayal.
So he waited. His hands remained clenched at his sides, his pulse pounding like war drums.
She stared up at him, her hand still resting on his chest, lips parted in something between pain and promise. His eyes held her as if she were the last holy thing left in a godless world.
“If the last thing I ever bleed for is you,” he said, his voice breaking against the silence, “then it will be worth every wound.”
Her lungs stalled. The image of him bleeding in the dirt—his bones broken, the fire fading from his eyes—was unbearable.
She surged into him, as if sheer force could tear the thought from existence. Her fists twisted in his shirt, dragging him close. Her voice cracked, fierce and shaking.
“Listen to me. Don’t you dare die tomorrow. Not for me. Not for anything.” Her entire body shook with rage, with terror, and with something dangerously close to the truth twisting inside her. "I won’t allow it. Not when I—"
She stopped, breath caught, but it was already too late.
Kareon’s hands wrapped firmly around hers, pulling her closer to a truth she had been pretending didn’t exist. He bent to her level, eyes burning into hers. "You what, Eris?"
The bond screamed between them. Even the air held still.
