Page 37 of Haunted Crowns
"How can you do this to me?"
Eris turned as steel tore through flesh. A man’s voice followed, hollow and shaking.
"Forgive me."
Eris gasped. She looked down. Blood bloomed across her skin as pain roared through her.
A scream rose from her throat, tearing through the vision and into the waking world.
Kareon sprang from his chair, heart pounding. "Eris!" He lunged to her side, cradling her as her body convulsed.
The ground beneath her vanished. A violent force dragged her down, and she plunged into blood. She thrashed, pulse hammering. Corpses floated past, twisted, hollow-eyed, mouths frozen in silent screams. She fought to stay afloat, but the blood pressed in, suffocating.
From below, shadows surged. Spirits writhed upward, their cries filled with rage and grief. Eris felt everything: the weight of their pain, the lives Kriponius had stolen.
They pulled her deeper, down into silence. With one final effort, she reached upward. In the waking world, her trembling hand rose from the bed. Kareon caught it and held tight, grounding her.
"Eris, I’m here." His voice broke with desperation.
In the vision, he pulled her upward. The spirits' claws slipped away. Their wails faded. Eris broke the surface and gasped. Solid ground caught her knees and her chest heaved. From beyond, a voice rose.
Kaelioth.
His chant wrapped around her like a shield, making the spirits recoil.
She staggered forward, breath ragged, as the mist unraveled into gold. Before her, a battlefield stretched to the horizon. The land was scarred, scattered with remnants of war. Yet what she saw was not ruin. It was victory.
The wind rose, carrying the scent of rain. Ahead, the Lycan green and black banners whipped against the sky. At their center, a black dragon.
The Dragov sigil.
But this was no mark of conquest. It was a mark of freedom.
An ancient whisper stirred in the wind.
“Two flames where none should burn.
One born of the wild, one of the night.
Divided in blood, bound in fate.
Two stars of a lost constellation.
One shall bear the beast’s fury,
One the shadows’ whisper.
From the bearer of both, the kingdom shall rise.
And the sundered crown shall be made whole.”
The words wrapped around her and sank into her bones.
Eris trembled.
The truth hovered just beyond reach. The prophecy echoed.
Then came the fracture.
