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PROLOGUE

The end of Queen Daephinia Nero’s life tasted bright.

It did not look it.

It was chaos and confusion and clashing steel and roaring spells.

It was darkness.

Her eyes blazed, determination and fury warring in them as she stared down the dark sorcerer standing on the other side of the tower rooftop. Rain pummeled them both, plastering Daephinia’s golden hair to her forehead. The faint sound of ringing hit her ears as droplets pelted her crown like a warning bell.

“You have brought the realm to ruin, Malakar,” Daephinia said between heavy breaths. Her chest heaved; her muscles trembled. This fight had gone on too long. “But your horrific reign ends now. Ends here.”

Malakar tilted his head, his shadowy cloak rippling like soft waves on a dark ocean. His eyes darted to the golden crown atop Daephinia’s head. “Such conviction, Your Majesty ,” he mocked. “But where was that honorable resolve when you were the one sundering the continent?”

His words were a sharp dagger in her. Guilt bled her insides. “I...There is much I regret about my actions.”

Malakar paused, assessing the queen with a cold arch of his brow. “Regret, Daephinia? Really? Such a human emotion.” He let the word hang between them. “I confess, I am surprised.”

“I do not pretend that I have not faltered,” she said, steeling herself. “But neither should you pretend that the Chasms were anything other than the result of the pain you caused.”

“Perhaps, Daephinia. Perhaps. But just look at what your grief has led to. See how your sorrow has nurtured this chaos.” He waved his hand dismissively—almost lazily—at the battle raging outside the castle walls. To the legions of his cultists and the misguided humans fighting against Daephinia’s floundering Arcanian forces. She bit back a grimace as she caught sight of a contingent of Malakar’s soldiers encroaching upon one of her garrisons.

They were losing.

A slow grin spread across the sorcerer’s face. Malakar sensed the queen’s faltering will. “Your husband begged me at the end, you know,” he said, his voice slithering over Daephinia’s skin like a snake. “On his hands and knees, tears streaming down his wrinkled face. Begged me to spare you. Spare your daughter. Even as he cursed my name for my betrayal, still he begged . Juno truly was a weak, pathetic human.”

Hearing her husband’s name pierced Daephinia’s heart. Hearing it spill from Malakar’s mouth set her blood on fire. “ You are human!”

“I think we both know I am something much greater than that now.”

Her hands tightened into fists, light flickering weakly at her fingertips. “And just look at what your ambitions have wrought. It is enough, Malakar. It ends here and now. I will end your evil and restore the peace I helped shatter.” Her anger was a living thing inside her. It begged her to lash out, to use her magic to ruin this evil man. But there was so little of it left. Her palms warmed, then her power sputtered out.

“Peace?” Malakar’s low laugh was a death knell. “Our peoples were never at peace—and they never will be so long as your kind continues to hoard your magic, flaunting your abilities while my people must claw their way to whatever pitiful mana stores they can reach.”

“That’s not?—”

“My people fight not for conquest, but for the power they rightly deserve. That which they are owed . Peace is an illusion. The world was born in chaos and in chaos it shall end.”

Dark magic burst from his chest, and Daephinia raised her hands to defend herself too late. It slammed into her, sending her crashing into the parapet, the back of her head hitting the hard stone. Stars appeared behind her eyelids. Her chin lolled and she released a strangled cry as the golden crown tumbled from her head—rolling to a stop at the sorcerer’s feet.

“The Crown of Concord.” Malakar’s voice was reverent as he bent to pick it up, his eyes gleaming. Triumphant. “So much power contained in such a little thing.”

“Don’t you touch it!” Daephinia shrieked, struggling to her feet. “It was meant to be hers !”

Malakar rolled his eyes. “What use would a half-breed baby have had for the most powerful object in creation? It is better that her miserable existence was put to a swift end. Truly, you should thank me.”

Red flooded her vision. “I will flay the skin from your body for what you have taken from me.”

Malakar chuckled darkly. “I think not.” He raised the crown, a vicious glint in his eye. “There will be no stopping me now.”

It was as if time suddenly slowed. Daephinia closed her eyes, burrowed down deep inside herself, digging out the final scraps of her magic. With the last vestiges of her strength, she called forth a golden light. It enveloped her hands, her arms, her being. The stuttering rhythm of her heartbeat grew more erratic. She did not care. Her light was within her and without her as she forged it, molded it, gave it shape.

The crescent curve of a bow, the luminous thread of its string.

The sharp, focused point of a golden arrow.

With a prayer to Solaris on her lips, she drew the bowstring back, releasing it with a cry of defiance just as Malakar set the crown upon his brow. The luminescent arrow hit its mark, striking the gilded crown right in its center .

“No!” The sorcerer’s roar was swallowed by a burst of white as the Crown of Concord shattered. A brilliant flash radiated out in a wide arc—a tidal wave of light that engulfed him, her, the battlefield, the very city around them.

Malakar was nothing more than a wisp of splintered shadow as the crown, cleaved in two, clattered on the stone.

For a moment, there was nothing but pure, incandescent, dazzling light.

And then that light was sucked back into Daephinia, a blinding assault of power that ripped her open.

The end of her life tasted bright.