Page 21 of Crowned by the Shadow (Bound by the Veil #5)

Chapter

Thirteen

Senara

The light from the Moon Blades flickered again, growing dimmer as exhaustion hit me like an arrow to the chest. My knees buckled, and the world tilted sideways.

“Senara!” Thorn’s voice sounded distant, muffled, as if he were calling to me from underwater.

Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. The Moon Blades slipped from my grasp, dissolving into motes of silver light that scattered into the night air. I tried to reach for them, but my limbs wouldn’t obey.

“Too much,” I heard Wyn say, her new twilight-touched voice rippling with concern. “She channeled too much power.”

Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision. I fought against it, struggling to stay conscious, but the pull was too strong. My last thought before the darkness claimed me was of the Void Dragon Empress and her terrible, ancient eyes watching me from across the boundary between worlds.

Then nothing.

I drifted in a sea of stars, untethered from my body. The cosmos stretched around me, vast and indifferent. I wasn’t afraid, though perhaps I should have been. Instead, I felt a strange peace, as if I’d returned to a place I’d always known but had forgotten.

Deep obsidian scales lined a face that was too beautiful for words and yet was also completely devoid of humanity.

Wings jutted from her back and her feet ended in talons that scored deep grooves into the glade’s crumbling edges.

The dark scales seemed to swallow the moon’s radiance, drawing my gaze to her face once more.

On her head she wore a crown of twisted talons, scales, and jewels which dripped with captured starlight.

But it was her eyes that froze my blood, twin vortices of collapsing galaxies framed by lashes made from darkness itself.

“Eclipse Child,” the Void Dragon Empress purred, her voice resonating on multiple planes. “Did you think there would be no repercussions for taking my mage?”

I tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go in this starlit void. “This isn’t real,” I said. “This is a dream.”

Her laughter was like crystal shattering. “Is it? Or is this the only place where truth exists, unfiltered by mortal perception?”

She moved closer, her massive form somehow graceful despite its size. The stars themselves seemed to bend around her, drawn to her gravity.

“You fight so hard,” she said, circling me. “Just as Fiona did. Just as all who came before. Always fighting, never understanding.”

“Understanding what?” I demanded, finding my voice stronger than I expected.

“That I am inevitable.” She spread her wings, blotting out entire constellations. “I am the void from which all things emerge, and to which all things return. I am the end and the beginning.”

“You’re corruption,” I countered. “Destruction.”

“Transformation,” she corrected, her voice almost gentle. “Change. Evolution. The weak call it corruption because they fear what they cannot control.”

The space between us rippled, and suddenly I was no longer alone facing her. Two figures materialized beside me, a man and a woman, their features familiar yet strange.

“Mother?” I whispered, recognizing the woman’s face that was all too similar to my own. I glanced at the other figure. “Father?”

Sebastian smiled sadly. “We tried to protect you from this moment, daughter. We failed.”

The woman, Aravae, reached for me, her fingers stopping just short of touching my face. “The burden should never have fallen to you.”

“What burden?” I asked, my voice breaking.

“The choice,” the Empress answered for them. “The same choice all Eclipse Children must make. To join me or to fight me. To embrace transformation or to cling to stagnation.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Sebastian urged. “She twists the truth, makes it sound reasonable. But there is nothing reasonable about what she offers.”

“And what does he offer instead?” the Empress asked, her voice dripping with contempt. “More war? More division between the courts? More centuries of fear and suspicion?”

“Unity,” Aravae said firmly. “Hope. Love. All the things you can never understand.”

The Empress laughed again; the sound sending shivers through the fabric of the dream. “Love? What did love ever bring you but pain and separation? What did it bring your daughter but abandonment and struggle?”

“Strength,” I answered, surprising myself. “It brought me strength. And purpose. And people worth fighting for.”

Something flickered across the Empress’s inhuman face, frustration, perhaps? Or respect? It was impossible to tell.

“So you choose as they did,” she said. “As Fiona did. As all who came before.”

“I choose my own path,” I replied. “Not yours. Not theirs. Mine.”

The Empress studied me for a long moment, her ancient eyes unreadable. “We shall see, Eclipse Child. When the moment comes, when you stand at the threshold of true power, we shall see what choice you make.”

She faded; the stars reappearing where her massive form had blocked them. “Until then, dream of what could be. Dream of the power I offer. Dream of transformation.”

As she vanished, Sebastian and Aravae moved closer to me.

“You’re stronger than we ever were,” my mother said, pride shining in her eyes. “But the road ahead is darker than you know.”

“The artifacts will guide you,” my father added. “Trust them. Trust yourself.”

“Wait,” I called as they faded too. “Don’t go. I have so many questions. What’s the choice? Tell me so I can prepare!”

“We are always with you,” Aravae’s voice echoed as she disappeared. “In your blood. In your mark. In your heart.”

“Remember who you are,” Sebastian’s voice lingered after his form had gone. “Remember what you fight for.”

And then I was alone again in the void, stars spinning around me as I dreamed.

Finally, after watching the tormented visions the Empress had left behind in my mind for altogether too long, I fell back toward consciousness.

I gasped awake, my body jerking upright as if pulled by invisible strings. Sweat soaked my clothes, and my heart hammered against my ribs like it was trying to escape.

“Easy,” Thorn’s voice came from beside me, his hand steadying my shoulder. “You’re safe.”

I blinked, taking in my surroundings. We were in a small clearing, a fire crackling nearby. Night had fallen completely, or maybe this was a different night entirely? I had no sense of how long I’d been unconscious.

Wyn sat across from me, her transformed appearance still startling, silver hair streaked with purple, skin marked with balanced patterns of light and shadow.

“How long was I out?” I asked, my voice raspy.

“A day,” Ronan answered from where he stood guard at the edge of the clearing.

“You needed the rest. We all did,” Thorn said, handing me a water skin. “You channeled more power than any mortal should be able to survive.”

I drank deeply, the cool water soothing my parched throat. As I lowered the skin, I noticed my hands, the Moon Mark still spiraled across my skin, but the corruption that had threaded through it was gone, replaced by thin lines of gold that hadn’t been there before.

“What happened to my mark?” I asked, turning my hands over in wonder.

Wyn moved closer, her new starlit eyes examining the changes. “Balance,” she said simply. “Just as I found balance between light and darkness, your mark has found balance between moon and sun.”

“The Sun Court,” I murmured, remembering Sebastian’s revelation about my parentage. “My father was Sun Court royalty.”

Thorn nodded. “The gold in your mark represents that heritage. It was always there, just dormant until now.”

I traced the new golden patterns with my fingertip, feeling a strange resonance as I did so. “I saw them,” I said quietly. “My parents. In my dream. And the Empress.”

The atmosphere around the fire changed immediately, tension crackling like the flames.

“What did she show you?” Wyn asked, leaning forward.

I described the dream, the void of stars, the Empress in her true form, my parents appearing to warn me, the choice the Empress claimed all Eclipse Children must make.

I spared them the visions she gave me after that, since I knew none of it was real.

It was all just dreams that she had sent to scare me.

“She’s trying to manipulate you,” Ronan said flatly when I finished. “Using your desire to know your parents against you.”

“Maybe,” I conceded. “But it felt real. They felt real. It’s not the first time she’s visited me while I was unconscious, either.”

Thorn nodded. “The Empress is powerful. When we’re unconscious, it’s like she can reach through the barrier between worlds and use her power to sway us to her side.”

Wyn’s expression grew thoughtful. “The convergence is coming. The barriers between realms are thinning, and her prison is weakening. It’s possible that what you have experienced when she’s spoken with you was a genuine connection, not just a dream.”

“What did your parents say, exactly?” Thorn asked, his face serious. I appreciated him pushing us past the question of whether or not it was real. He believed me. He’d even experienced it himself, so I was happy to move on.

I closed my eyes, trying to recall their exact words. “They said I was stronger than they were. That the artifacts would guide me. To trust myself.” I opened my eyes again, meeting Thorn’s gaze. “And to remember what I’m fighting for.”

“And the Empress?” Wyn prompted. “What did she want?”

“For me to join her. To ‘embrace transformation’ instead of fighting it. Same as usual, really.” I shuddered at the memory of those ancient, terrible eyes. “She called it evolution. Said what we call corruption is just change that we fear because we can’t control it.”

“Classic manipulation,” Ronan scoffed. “Make evil sound reasonable, make resistance sound like fear or weakness.”

“But what if there’s truth in it?” Wyn asked quietly, looking down at her transformed hands where shadows and light danced across her skin. “Not in joining her, but in understanding that not all transformation is corruption.”

“Like what happened to you,” I said, understanding dawning.

She nodded. “The darkness tried to consume me, but instead, we found balance. Transformation without corruption.”

The fire crackled as we all fell silent, considering the implications of her words. Finally, Thorn spoke.

“Whatever the truth, we know this, the Empress is coming. The convergence approaches. And we need to be ready.”

“How?” Ronan asked. “We barely escaped with our lives last time, and that was just Eldric and his forces. How do we face the Empress herself?”

“The artifacts,” I said, remembering my father’s words from the dream. “They’ll guide us.”

I reached for the pendant at my throat, feeling its reassuring weight. The Crown and Mirror lay nearby, their surfaces reflecting the firelight. Together with the blades, they had saved Wyn, transformed her into something new. Could they do the same for the world when the Empress broke free?

“We need to understand them better,” Thorn said, following my gaze to the artifacts. “Their true purpose, their full power.”

“And we need allies,” Ronan added. “This isn’t a fight we can win alone.”

Wyn nodded in agreement. “The courts need to know what’s coming. They need to set aside their differences and unite against the true threat.”

“They won’t listen to us,” I said bitterly. “We tried, and now we’re fugitives, remember? Thorn and I broke their precious laws by forming our soul bond. Not to mention I’m a pariah, the embodiment of the threat to their entire worldview.”

“Then we make them listen,” Ronan said, determination hardening his voice. “We show them the truth. We prove that their ancient prejudices are nothing compared to the danger we all face.”

“Maybe. First, we rest, or at least I need more rest,” I said, feeling the exhaustion still heavy in my bones. “Then we plan. And then we fight, not just for ourselves, but for all realms.”

As the others murmured their agreement, and drifted away, except for Thorn, who just watched me. I sat back and pulled the mangled sleeve of my disguise up checking for the corruption that had woven itself through my mark before.

It was gone for the most part, but some of it was still there, persistent in its efforts to control me. I knew Thorn was still watching me, still worried about me, but I couldn’t do anything about it right now, not if he didn’t want to talk about it.

I lay back down, my body demanding more recovery time. But as I drifted toward sleep again, I felt it, a presence at the edge of my consciousness, watching, waiting. The Empress hadn’t given up. She was patient, ancient beyond comprehension, and certain of her victory.

But so was I. Whatever came next, whatever choice awaited me at the end of this path, I would face it with open eyes and a full heart. I would remember what I was fighting for. I would remember who I was and where I had come from.

Senara. Eclipse Child. Daughter of sun and moon.

And I would never surrender.