Page 18 of Crowned by the Shadow (Bound by the Veil #5)

Chapter

Twelve

Senara

“I’m free,” Wyn gasped, stumbling toward me with outstretched arms. “Senara, you broke his hold?—”

Her words cut off as her eyes rolled back in her head. She collapsed, her body going limp before she even reached me. I lunged forward and caught her just before she hit the ground, cradling her against my chest.

“Wyn!” I cried, frantically checking for signs of life. Her pulse fluttered beneath my fingertips, weak but present. The corruption still threaded through her veins, dark lines against her pale skin, but they seemed less pronounced now, as if the fight had weakened their hold.

Thorn was instantly at my side, his hand on Wyn’s forehead. “She’s burning up,” he said grimly.

“We need to get her out of here,” Ronan added, his eyes constantly scanning the chamber for threats.

I nodded, trying to gather my thoughts through the panic clouding my mind. “The pendant,” I said, fumbling for the Veilshard with one hand while holding Wyn with the other. “I can open another passage.”

“Hurry,” Thorn urged, taking Wyn from my arms. “I don’t think we’re alone anymore.”

He was right. Shadows moved at the edges of the chamber, coalescing into solid forms. There was something familiar about their movements though and I knew they were the same as the shadow guardians we had faced before.

They emerged from the darkness, their eyes glowing with that same sickly purple light.

My fingers closed around the Veilshard Pendant as I pulled the Eclipsed Crown from my head, feeling as though I needed to hold it. The Mirror lay at my feet where I’d dropped it during the explosion. Three artifacts—pendant, crown, and mirror—each one pulsing with ancient power.

Thorn knelt beside me, still cradling Wyn’s unconscious form, while Ronan pressed his back against mine, weapon raised toward the approaching shadow guardians.

I closed my eyes, focusing on the pendant first. Its energy flowed through me, familiar and comforting. Next, I reached for the Crown, its power more volatile but responsive to my will. Finally, the Mirror, whose surface rippled with starlight even with my eyes closed.

“Show us the way home,” I whispered, pouring my intent into the artifacts. “Open the path.”

The air between the three artifacts shimmered, just as it had when we’d entered the fortress. A circle of light formed around us, growing brighter with each passing second.

“It’s working,” Thorn murmured, hope threading through his voice.

The shadow guardians moved faster now, sensing our imminent escape. Their forms blurred as they rushed toward us, weapons raised.

“Almost there,” I gritted out, sweat beading on my forehead as I fought to maintain the connection between the artifacts. The gateway was forming, but slowly, too slowly.

The first shadow guardian reached the edge of our group, its blade slashing downward. Ronan parried the blow, the clash of weapons sending sparks flying as the noise of it rang in my ears.

“Senara!” he called urgently. “We’re out of time!”

I poured more of myself into the artifacts, drawing on reserves I didn’t know I had. The gateway stabilized, a perfect circle of light surrounding us.

“Now!” I shouted, reaching to gather the artifacts.

But before I could grab them, a terrible, familiar laugh echoed through the chamber.

The shadows parted, revealing Eldric. He looked different now—more dragon than human, scales covering most of his face, his body elongated and twisted.

The corruption had sped up, consuming more of what remained of his humanity.

“Leaving so soon?” he hissed, his voice distorted and multi-layered. “After I went to such trouble to bring you here?”

With a gesture, he sent a wave of shadow energy toward our circle. It crashed against the barrier created by the artifacts, causing the gateway to flicker dangerously and reduce in size.

The portal went from something we could have passed through to something that I’d have to dive roll through if I wanted to make it and even then it would be questionable.

After all, I did not know what something like that would do if the edges of it touched my skin.

Add to that how wide Thorn and Ronan’s shoulders were, and it would be impossible for them to make it.

“You can’t escape me,” Eldric snarled, advancing slowly. “The Empress has marked you, Eclipse Child. She knows your scent now. Your taste. Your fear.”

I fought to maintain the gateway, my arms trembling with effort.

“We need to go,” I gasped to Thorn. “I can’t hold it much longer.

” As I spoke, I fought to make it bigger once more.

Thorn nodded, gathering Wyn closer to his chest as he prepared to move as soon as it was large enough for him to pass through.

Ronan continued to hold off the shadow soldiers, his movements becoming more desperate as their numbers increased and they surrounded him on almost all sides.

He wouldn’t be able to hold them off much longer, I knew that, and so did Thorn, judging from the look on his face.

Eldric stepped closer, his corrupted eyes fixed on me with terrifying intensity. “Why can’t you just be reasonable?” he demanded, genuine frustration in his voice. “Why must you ruin everything? I offered you power and understanding! I offered survival for you and those you love!”

His words struck me as so absurd that I almost laughed. Reasonable? After what he’d done to Wyn? After corrupting himself and countless others?

“You had a chance to help us stop the Empress,” I said, my voice steady despite my exhaustion. “Instead, you surrendered to her. Became her puppet.”

“I am no one’s puppet!” Eldric roared, his form expanding as rage consumed him.

“I am evolution! I am the future! You think the dragonkin want to be stuck like this?” He paused and gestured to himself.

“Half transformed monstrosities that have had to hide themselves away from the world so they aren’t hunted to extinction?

You think the corruption changes all of us the same way?

No, Eclipse Child. We do what we have to in order to survive, and you will too when your time comes. ”

I didn’t bother responding this time. Something stirred within me, a power I’d felt only in bursts before.

The Moon Mark on my skin blazed with silver light, pushing back against the corruption that had threaded through it.

The power from the sun court, though not as clear on my skin, was right behind it, chasing the darkness out.

In that moment, I felt a call, not from the Empress, but from something else. Something ancient and powerful that had been waiting for me to reach for it and for my resolve to be strong enough that it could answer.

The Moon Blades.

I’d seen them, held them, fought with them, but they had refused to come to my summons since we’d been in the glad.

Now they answered my desperation. I knew these weapons. I was meant to wield them, even if some claimed otherwise. So I held no hesitation as I reached out with my mind, calling them to me.

The air before me shimmered, and two massive crescent-shaped blades materialized in my hands, their edges glowing with the same silver light as my mark. They felt right, as if they’d been crafted specifically for my grip.

Eldric’s eyes widened in shock and something else. Fear. “No,” he whispered.

I rose to my feet, the Moon Blades humming with power in my hands. “Yes. Whatever this crusade of yours is, it ends now.”

With a cry that came from somewhere deep within my soul, I launched myself at Eldric. The Moon Blades moved as extensions of my arms, cutting through shadow and corruption with impossible ease. Where they passed, they left trails of silver light that hung in the air like echoes.

Eldric recoiled, raising his arms to defend himself. Shadow energy gathered around his clawed hands, forming weapons of his own, curved daggers made of pure darkness. But they were small compared to my own blades.

Our weapons met in a clash of glowing silver and shadow. The impact sent shockwaves through the chamber, causing the obsidian walls to crack. We moved in a deadly dance, each strike and parry releasing more energy into the surrounding air.

“You can’t win,” Eldric hissed, his blades a blur as he pressed his attack. “The Empress has already claimed you. The corruption spreads through your mark even now.”

He was right, to an extent. I felt it, the cold tendrils of darkness trying to seep deeper into my being. But the Moon Blades seemed to help push it back, their light creating a barrier between the corruption and my soul.

“I am not claimed,” I snarled, spinning to avoid his attack before countering with one of my own. The Moon Blades sang through the air, leaving silver arcs in their wake. “I belong to myself.”

One of my blades found its mark, slicing across Eldric’s chest. He howled in pain, black ichor spilling from the wound. The shadow soldiers around us faltered, as if their master’s pain affected them directly.

“Senara!” Thorn called from the gateway. “We have to go now!”

I risked a glance back. The gateway was collapsing, its edges fraying like worn fabric. Thorn stood at its center, Wyn still unconscious in his arms, while Ronan fought desperately to keep the shadow soldiers at bay.

Eldric saw my moment of distraction and struck. His shadow blade sliced along my arm, drawing blood. Pain lanced through me, but I refused to cry out. Instead, I channeled it, letting it fuel my determination.

With a final, desperate effort, I brought both Moon Blades together in a crosscut that caught Eldric across the throat. He staggered backward, shock and disbelief etched on his corrupted features as black ichor poured from the wound.

“This isn’t over,” he gasped, his form already beginning to dissolve into shadow. “You cannot stop what’s coming. The Empress rises. The convergence approaches. All will be consumed.”