Page 17 of Crowned by the Shadow (Bound by the Veil #5)

He stepped back, moving to stand beside Wyn.

“The Void Dragon Empress isn’t your enemy, Senara.

She’s your salvation. Your destiny. There was a moment where I thought you might be stronger than Fiona, strong enough to put the Empress back in her cage for a long time, but then she predicted this, and I knew you would be just as weak as your predecessor.

The only thing we can do if we wish to survive is to embrace what the Empress offers us.

Accept the destiny that has been laid before you and your road will become much smoother. ”

“My destiny is my own,” I said, the Crown on my head growing suddenly warm. “And I choose to fight.”

Eldric sighed, as if disappointed by a child’s stubbornness. “I expected more from you. Especially since you know what happened to Fiona.”

“What did happen to her?” I demanded. “The truth.”

“The truth?” Eldric laughed bitterly. “She was weak. When the moment came, when she stood before the tear in reality and faced the Empress, she hesitated. She doubted. And in that moment of doubt, she was lost. Yes, she said the words. She raised her weapon, but she knew all was lost before she even said the first syllable.”

He turned and went back to Wyn, reaching out and touching her face with disturbing tenderness. “I won’t let that happen to your friend. The Twilight transformation will prepare her, strengthen her. When the Empress comes through, she’ll be ready. She’ll survive.”

“As what?” I spat. “A puppet? A slave?”

“As something new,” Eldric replied. “Something magnificent.”

My hand closed around the pendant at my throat. “I won’t let you do this.”

“You cannot stop it,” Eldric said simply.

“The process has already begun. The corruption spreads through her veins, just as it spreads through yours.” He nodded toward my mark, where the darkness continued to thread through the silver patterns.

“You felt the Empress’s touch when you crossed between realms. You know her power. ”

I glanced at Thorn, whose face had hardened into a mask of determination. Ronan stood ready beside him, weapon poised. They were waiting for my signal; I realized. Waiting for me to decide how we would proceed.

“Why Wyn?” I asked, buying time to think. “Of all the mages you could have chosen, why her?”

“Because she was already halfway there,” Eldric replied, as he turned to face me once more.

“Her necromancy? The ability to touch the boundary between life and death? The duality of her nature? It all made her the perfect candidate. It doesn’t hurt that she matters to you, either.

” His corrupted eye fixed on me. “Your emotions for her will make you hesitate, just as mine for Fiona made me hesitate. I’m giving you the chance I never had.

You can save her, to help her transcend. ”

“By turning her into a monster?”

“By helping her grow!” Eldric snapped, his composure cracking again. “The Void isn’t evil, Senara. It’s simply... different. Another state of being. Another way to exist.”

I shook my head, disgust rising in my throat. “Look at yourself. Look what it’s done to you.”

“It’s strengthened me,” he insisted. “Now I’m more powerful than I could have ever imagined. Maybe if Fiona had sent me away as well, things would be different, but I wasn’t who she chose. I was left to face the Empress alone, and I did what I had to do to survive.”

“The Eldric from that vision didn’t survive. The Empress destroyed you and the corruption consumed you,” I countered. “There’s nothing left of who you were.”

Something flickered across his face. Pain, perhaps, or regret. It was gone in an instant, replaced by icy determination.

“Enough talk,” he said, his voice hardening. “You have a choice to make, Eclipse Child. Join us willingly, help guide the transformation of your friend into the Twilight Mage, and together we can face the coming storm. Or resist and watch her be consumed entirely by the Void.”

As if on cue, Wyn stirred, her head lifting slightly. Her eyes opened, and my heart nearly stopped. Where once there had been warm curiosity, now there were only swirling galaxies of darkness, pinpricks of light swimming in black pools.

“Senara,” she whispered, her voice strangely distorted, as if multiple voices spoke at once. “Help me.”

The plea cut through me like a blade. I stepped forward instinctively, only to be stopped by Thorn’s hand on my arm.

“It’s a trap,” he murmured. “Don’t cross the circle.”

Eldric smiled, seeing my hesitation. “She needs you, Eclipse Child. Only you can stabilize her transformation. Only you can save her from being consumed entirely. One being that touches life and death and one being that touches the darkness and the light, all four points balancing and steadying each other as they become stronger.”

I looked from Wyn’s corrupted form to Eldric’s half-transformed face, my mind racing. There had to be a way to save her without surrendering to the Void.

There had to be.

The Crown on my head grew suddenly warm, and the pendant at my throat pulsed in response. Together, they created a harmony of power that resonated through my entire being. The Mirror in my pack seemed to answer, adding a third note to the chord.

“The key,” I whispered, remembering Fiona’s dying words. “The mirror and the pendant together... the key.”

Eldric’s corrupted eye widened. “What did you say?”

I met his gaze steadily. “I said I’ve made my choice.”

With a swift movement, I pulled the Starforged Mirror from my pack, holding it before me like a shield. The pendant I gripped in my other hand, its power flowing through me, amplified by the Crown on my head.

“I choose to fight,” I said, my voice ringing with certainty. “Not just for Wyn, but for all who’ve suffered because of the Void’s corruption. For Fiona. For the person you once were.”

Eldric’s face contorted with rage. “You understand nothing!”

“I understand enough,” I replied. “The Void consumed you, just as it’s trying to consume Wyn. You’re just as much a prisoner as she is.”

“I am free!” he roared, his dragon features becoming more pronounced as his anger grew. “Free of the lies, the limitations imposed by those who fear what they don’t understand!”

“Look at yourself,” I hissed. “Really look. Is this freedom? Or just another kind of prison?”

For a moment, just a moment, I saw doubt flicker across his face. The human half seemed to war with the corrupted dragon half, as if two souls inhabited one body. Then he laughed, and it sent a chill down my spine.

The air crackled with tension as I stood in the heart of the Obsidian Keep, Eldric’s half-dragon visage glaring down at me from across the dais.

The corrupted version of the Starforged Mirror loomed behind him, swirling with a dark energy that felt almost sentient.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the Empress was somewhere behind it, watching.

Tightening my grip on the pendant and mirror, my heart racing as Wyn hung suspended before us, ensnared in tendrils of darkness, I knew what I had to do.

“Do you think you can save her?” Eldric’s voice dripped with contempt. “You’re merely a child playing at magic. You don’t even understand your own magic, nevermind what’s happening to your friend.”

“You underestimate me,” I shot back, forcing my voice to remain steady despite the fear clawing at my insides.

Eldric chuckled, a sound that echoed eerily in the chamber. “And you underestimate the power of the Void. It will consume everything.”

“Not if I can help it.” My gaze shifted to Wyn. She looked so frail, yet there was a flicker of defiance in her eyes—a spark that reminded me why I fought.

“I’ll free you!” I shouted, stepping closer to the dais, but Thorn’s hand shot out, gripping my arm firmly.

“Senara!” His voice was urgent, but low enough to keep from drawing Eldric’s attention.

“What?” I hissed back, glancing at him while keeping my eyes on Wyn.

“We need a plan,” he insisted, his fiery gaze scanning our surroundings for anything that could turn this battle in our favor. “If we rush in blindly?—”

“It’s too late for plans!” I interrupted, frustration bubbling over as panic clouded my thoughts. “We have to act now before he corrupts her completely!”

Eldric stepped closer to Wyn, as if sensing our hesitation. “You see? Even now, she grows weaker. Every moment you waste strengthens her bonds to me and to the Empress herself.”

The runes beneath Wyn flickered ominously, and she gasped as darkness flared across her skin, coursing through her veins like fire.

The sight tore at my heart. For a second there was a flicker in my vision and I felt like Wyn and I had switched places, like she was standing here trying to save me from the corruption and I knew what she would do if our roles were reversed.

“No!” Thorn shouted suddenly and launched forward without waiting for me or Ronan to react. Why had he pulled me back only to go after Wyn himself?

“Thorn!” I cried out as he dashed toward Eldric. Confusion filled my mind. What happened to needing a plan?

Before I could stop him or even follow, Eldric raised his hand sharply, and Thorn collided with an invisible barrier surrounding the dais. He staggered back as if he’d hit a wall made of solid steel.

“You thought you could simply walk into my domain and rescue your friend?” Eldric mocked, looking between us with amusement dancing in his reptilian eye. “You’re all so na?ve.”

Ronan gripped his weapon tighter but didn’t move forward yet; he was waiting for the right moment, just like me.

“Eldric!” I called out desperately, trying to pull his focus away from Thorn. “You can’t keep doing this! The Empress is coming! You think binding Wyn will give you power? You’re only hastening your own demise!”

He turned away from Thorn and towards me again, curiosity sparking in those corrupted depths where his humanity once lived. “And what do you know about power? You’re simply an Eclipse Child. You’re nothing more than a child born under unusual circumstances. Not the first and not the last.”

I swallowed hard against the rising anger and dread. “Then let me show you how much power an Eclipse Child can wield!”

With that declaration hanging heavy in the air between us, I focused on both artifacts, the Veilshard Pendant pulsing against my palm as I clutched it, and the Starforged Mirror trembling in my other hand. A surge of energy flowed through me as they responded to my determination.

“I will not let you win,” I declared fiercely.

Wyn’s eyes widened slightly; even through the haze of darkness creeping over her consciousness, she seemed to recognize what was happening.

“Senara!” Her voice trembled as she fought against her restraints. “Don’t?—”

But it was too late; the darkness had already taken hold of her voice again and twisted it into something alien and hollow, a reflection of Eldric’s own corruption that made me shudder inwardly.

Ignoring Wyn’s warning, I lifted both artifacts high above my head while simultaneously channeling magic through them, not just my magic, but Thorn’s as well. Silver and gold light spiraled outward from both objects until they formed a brilliant halo around me.

“ Enough! ” Eldric roared, his frustration boiling over as he spun around towards us, but by then it was already too late for him.

In one swift motion, the blinding silvery gold light engulfed everything, including Eldric, sending him tumbling backward along with anything else nearby.

Echoes reverberated deep within the chamber the magic reflecting on itself from the curved obsidian walls until eventually it subsided like waves finally stilling on a lake.

When silence fell like thick fog settling heavily upon each of us, I saw that the ground beneath my feet had cracked, breaking the runes that were inscribed upon it until they were nothing but rubble around my boots.

As I looked around, all I could see for a long, unsettling moment was black and purple dust. A moment passed before I forced my feet to move, to cross the boundary that Thorn had held me back from again and again.

Nothing happened as I stepped closer to where the dais had been. I kept my gaze locked on to the area, waiting for Eldric to emerge and taunt me further.

The dust finally settled, gradually revealing Wyn. She emerged slowly from the cloud. Whatever had been holding her in place was clearly gone and, as she realized it, she ran toward me.