Page 182 of Haunted Crowns
The language was ancient, lost to time and mortals, remembered only by the divine.
Her voice was no longer her own. It was vast and celestial.
Then came the light.
Radiant fire swept over her skin as the divine prayers ignited. Her hands drew life from the earth itself and poured it into them, becoming vessels of creation as wounds closed, flesh repaired, and blood returned. Power burned in her veins as the heavens flowed into her. It was almost too much. Still, she held on.
Both men shuddered as healing took hold. Kareon gasped, lungs filling with air, heart hammering back to life. Stephan exhaled, his body shaking as strength returned.
But the spirits were not done.
Heat surged through them both. Stephan’s chest burned as a mark appeared over his heart, born of love and sacrifice. Kareon’s forearm seared with a symbol of protection and primal oath. They bore different marks, but the same vow. Stephan bore his like a crown, measured and unwavering. Kareon wore his like a scar, wild and loyal.
The spirits had not only chosen Eris, they had chosen them as well.
This was no love triangle. This was divine order.
She was no longer just Eris. She was Queen. She was Goddess.
She was not meant to choose. She was meant to rise. Yet when their eyes met, the fire still burned.
Bound by purpose, divided by love—neither would yield, and neither would walk away.
She was the war they would die for, kill for, burn the world for.
Peace was impossible, so long as her heart belonged to both.
The light faded, and the divine fell silent. The prayers vanished from her skin, the marks retreating from their bodies. Yet Eris remained still, her gaze empty, her soul distant.
Stephan recognized the look. He had seen it many times before.
Kareon tensed, uncertain of what to do.
Then Eris spoke, her voice hollow: “A test of faith…a price of eternity.”
Kareon reached out to touch her, but Stephan stopped him. “No. Let her return on her own.”
Eris drew a breath, not just of air but of power. Her eyes blinked into focus as if waking from another world. Then she smiled, and the world stilled.
It was the kind of smile that bent reality. Even the storm obeyed. Clouds unraveled like silk torn by unseen hands. The wind fell silent. And as the heavens opened, the stars emerged—radiant, eternal—burning brighter than they ever had before.
She rose, the weight of her power pressing against her chest. Still holding their hands, she lifted them with her. Without a word, she draped her cloak over Kareon’s bare shoulders. He remained silent, his golden eyes flickering.
She stepped closer, not as a queen or a goddess but as Eris, a woman on the edge of something immense. “Just a moment,” she said.
Stephan drew her in, breath warm against her temple. Kareon lowered his brow to hers, his hands steady on her back. She leaned into them. Not because she was weak, but because even gods need something to hold.
Tomorrow loomed, vast and unknown. Would she remain Eris—or become something else entirely?
She pressed closer, anchored by their heartbeats. They stood together, unbreakable.
But even as their warmth held her steady, something inside her trembled. Not with fear, but with the weight of knowing.
She loved them both. Not in halves, but in wholes. In different, colliding ways. And no matter how she held them, someone would always bleed.
Stephan was the tether to her past—the one who reminded her who she used to be before divinity swallowed her whole.
Kareon was the fire ahead—the one who didn’t resist her divinity, but fed it instead.
