Page 90 of Haunted Crowns
Adrian nodded, mock-serious. “A diplomatic meeting, they said. A political discussion, they said.”
Taric folded his arms. “I’ll start digging graves just in case.”
Varis adjusted his gloves, calm as ever. “Make it a deep one.”
Stephan’s expression shifted, hardening into something colder.Enough. “You think you know her?” he said, voice lethal. “Like a wolf howling at the moon, thinking it belongs to him just because it calls for it? You don’t understand a damn thing. Not about Eris. Not about me.” His presence became a blade unsheathed, his voice cutting with the same brutal precision. His eyes flashed, fury and faith entwined. “You talk like she is going to break my world. She’s not here to shatter it. She is going to rule it. With me. As my queen.” He took another step, his blade glinting as his voice turned razor-sharp. “That is what you will never grasp. Because you do not know what it means to carry a kingdom. To protect it. To bleed for it. Let my sword teach you what loyalty looks like.”
He moved fast, a blur of fury and steel as he lunged. The sword sliced through air, merciless.
Kareon moved just as swiftly. The clearing erupted, sparks bursting as metal screamed. Theon and Adrian stepped back on instinct, their banter silenced. Two warriors from opposite worlds came crashing together.
Stephan struck like a soldier, precise, honed, and unforgiving. Years of discipline forged into every blow. Kareon didn’t fight like a soldier. He fought like the wild. He moved with wind and instinct. One moment he was there, the next, he was gone. He let Stephan’s fury slice through empty air, drawing it out, wearing him down, before slipping in to strike.
Stephan growled, lunging forward, his sword slicing inches from Kareon’s throat.
Kareon ducked and pivoted, their movements weaving through dappled sunlight bleeding between the trees. This wasn’t strength against strength. It was control against chaos. Legacy against instinct.
Theon leaned against a tree, arms folded. “Classic. Absolutely classic.”
Adrian clapped slowly. “Brilliant strategy—turn a love triangle into a sword fight. That always ends well.”
Taric crossed his arms. “Should we step in or let them get it out of their system?”
Varis shrugged. “They’d probably stab us too.”
Stephan drove forward, his blade locking against Kareon’s with brute force. Their faces were inches apart, breaths mingling, muscles coiled.
Kareon’s smirk didn’t falter. “Oh, but I do understand what it takes to carry a kingdom. The Firstbloods know it well too, don’t they? Sacrificing the people they love for power.” His golden eyes glinted, darkly. “But if you think I’ll let you do that to Eris…” His voice dropped, a breath from a growl. “You’re already dead!”
He twisted, feral, and shoved Stephan back. Stephan staggered a step, caught—not by the blow, but by the fire in Kareon’s eyes. What was that? For a heartbeat, he hesitated. That wasn’t bravado. That wasn’t defiance. That was possession, certainty.
Was he—?No. Impossible.
Stephan’s grip on his sword tightened. He charged again, closing the distance in a flash, the blade a breath from Kareon’s skin. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he snarled. “I would never destroy her. But I will destroy you.”
He pressed forward, sword locked against Kareon’s in a brutal deadlock. Steel shrieked, splitting the air as raw power clashed, but Kareon didn’t flinch. There was something in the way he stood, unyielding, deeper than defiance. It made Stephan hesitate.What is this?
His gaze flickered for just a second, and that was enough. His breath caught. There, faint against Kareon’s bronzed throat: bite marks.Herbite marks.
The world tilted. It felt like stepping off solid ground into open air. His grip wavered, heart pounding against his ribs.No. No. No.What the hell is this?
Stephan pulled back, eyes wide. “What is the meaning of that?” His voice was low and sharp, tight with the edge of breaking.
Kareon exhaled, brushing two fingers across the fading wounds—so faint now, nearly gone.
“It means,” he said quietly, “that Eris and I share a bond you can’t begin to understand.”
The words struck harder than steel. Stephan swallowed, something frantic rising beneath the rage.
No. Eris had chosen him. Not Kareon. Hadn’t she?
Still, those bite marks were real, and Kareon hadn’t flinched. He didn’t gloat or triumph. He just stood there with that unbearable, quiet certainty, as if he knew something Stephan didn’t—or worse, something Stephan had always refused to see.
That Eris had never been his to claim, only his to lose.
She hadn’t left, but gods, the fear of losing her was louder than reason.
His grip faltered. His lungs ached as the air thinned around him. Something inside cracked. And then came the question he could no longer silence—the one whose answer already lived in him, coiled and cruel.
