Page 19

The Final Seal

C assandra

Nyx is not flesh.

She is a shadow-made will, smoke shaped into a scream. Her voice fills the terrace like a storm, echoing with every step I take toward the flickering seal.

“Look at you,” she hisses. “Crowned in stolen magik. Wearing a throne that wasn’t made for you.

” Nyx circles me, her form flickering at the edges like a dying flame desperate to survive.

“You think this is about prophecy? About power?” Her voice drops to something low and vicious.

“It’s about survival. Quietus doesn’t thrive in balance.

We are the shadow. We are the hunger. If peace takes root, if you bind the realms, we will vanish. ”

I freeze. She’s not just afraid of me. She’s afraid of what I represent.

“You feed on chaos,” I murmur.

“No,” she snarls. “We are born of it. Without it, our magik fades and our identity dies. You want harmony, False Queen? Harmony means extinction for us.”

I don’t want to be the person to destroy an entire realm, but I know I need to do this, I can feel it in my bones. Once the prophecy is fulfilled, I know everything will work out. Besides, there will always be chaos, even in times of peace.

I raise the shard, my blood still warm on its surface. “You can stop trying to convince me not to do this. I’ve already made my decision.”

The runes beneath us pulse erratically. The tether is breaking. She’s unravelling it, thread by thread, forcing the realms apart. If she finishes the spell, the merging collapses and this war will never end.

The prophecy will die. And God only knows what it will do to Niko, or me.

“Cassandra,” she snarls. “You were meant to balance the realms. Not bind them. That is the truth the Oracle never told Niko or anyone. Too much power in one vessel will break the weave.”

She sweeps a hand through the air and a wave of black flame rushes at me. I raise the shard instinctively and it absorbs the fire. The magik inside it crackles and the shard glows brighter.

I feel it then. The shard isn’t just a weapon. It’s a key. One final choice. It was created for one use, and it will only obey one command. To seal the realms together or to sever them permanently.

Every other time I have used it, it was nothing more than a shield, working at a fraction of its true capacity. But now it will do what it was intended for.

My hand shakes and my magik flares.

“Your bond to the prince is a noose,” Nyx growls, circling. “Cut it. End this. Walk away free.”

I laugh, breathless and trembling. “You think I want to be free?”

I raise my other hand, and my own magik roars out, not to strike, but to summon. The spirits of Runic flare to life around me. The guardians, the ancients, and all the old queens before me with glowing eyes and battle-scarred skin. They gather behind me like a memory of power.

I feel the earth beneath my feet and Runic at my back. And, gods help me, even Quietus in my blood.

“I don’t want to be free,” I say. “I want to finish this.”

And then I throw the shard straight into the seal. A shriek vibrates through the air, and it sounds like the world splits. A wave of light erupts, not white, but all colors of the universe. The stones crack beneath my feet.

Nyx screams, her form unravelling as the merging completes. Not gently and not softly. But with violence and finality.

The shard melts into the seal, fusing the realms and our bond with a final burst of magik. Three runes burn into my skin, painfully, one for each realm. And then ... silence.

Nyx is gone and the tether holds.

I collapse to my knees, my chest is heaving, and my hands are scorched. My heart is pounding so hard I can’t hear anything else.

I don’t know if I’ve won but I do know I’ve survived.

Footsteps echo behind me before arms wrap around me. He lifts me from the ground and turns me around. Niko wraps himself around me, forehead to mine, his voice broken with relief.

“You did it,” he whispers.

“No,” I breathe. “We did.”

And outside, from the ashes of battle, the first real dawn breaks.