Page 14
The Shard
N iko
I find her in the garden, seated on a low stone bench, moonlight curling around her like a crown of silver. She doesn’t flinch when I approach, not this time. Her power rolls off her in steady waves now. It doesn’t lash out or spark anymore. It breathes with her, swelling and receding.
“You’re not the same woman I met in Bantry Bay,” I say, stopping a few paces behind her.
Cassandra looks up. “I’m not even the same woman I was yesterday.” She chuckles but the sound is flat.
Her voice is calm, but there’s something sharper beneath it. Resolve perhaps? She holds up her palm, revealing the shard, and my breath catches.
“Where did you get that?” I ask.
“Arabella brought it,” she replies. “It’s a trinity shard. I felt the realms in it, Niko. All three realms. I don’t think I’m becoming their queen. I think I already am.”
Silence stretches between us. Not uncomfortable, just heavy. This is real and scary.
“There’s something else,” she says. “I can feel them pulling at me. Earth. Runic. Even Quietus. Like they all want me to choose.”
“You can’t choose,” I say. “You don’t belong to one realm anymore.”
She nods. “I know and that’s what scares me.”
I move toward her and kneel in front of her. I take both her hands in mine, pressing my lips to her knuckles.
“Then let’s stop reacting,” I say. “Let’s move first. Let’s stop waiting for the prophecy to crush us and start using it to our advantage.”
Her eyes flicker with light, her gaze colliding with mine. “What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s time to end this game of shadows. We announce the merging ceremony, and we do it publicly. No more secrets and no more damn delays.”
“They’ll try to stop us.”
“Let them,” I say. “Let them try and fail.”
“And if they don’t fail?”
I rise and pull her to her feet. “They will. And in the process, they will reveal themselves. Then we will know who is against us.”
She doesn’t smile but she does step closer. “I want to do this with you,” she says. “Not just the crown or the ceremony. I want all of it. I want to build something new with you.”
I cup her face. “Then stand with me.”
She lifts her chin. “I already am.”
****
T he next day, a royal decree is issued across all three realms. It is sent out on parchment wrapped in magik.
The Merging Ceremony
of
Cassandra Elise Ravenwood
Salem Descendant Witch of Alluvium
&
Nikolas Merrick Maximus
Highborn Fae and Future Ruler of Runic
will be held under the eclipse of the twin moons where they will bind their souls and their realms. Those who oppose the union will not be given mercy.