Page 19 of The Rivaled Crown (The Veiled Kingdom #3)

CHAPTER 19

VERENA

I woke up feeling different.

Not just the dull, satisfying ache of muscles well-used, or the lingering warmth where Dacre had touched me, but something deeper, something that could not be seen or measured.

Something that settled inside me. Shifted. Rooted.

I was no longer just a weapon to be won, a pawn in a war I never asked to fight. I was no longer a girl struggling to survive a kingdom that had already decided what she would become.

I was something else entirely, and the realization did not unnerve me.

It calmed me.

Because with Dacre, I was more.

I felt it in the way my magic hummed gently beneath my skin, no longer a wild, writhing thing that demanded more than I was willing to give.

It belonged to me, and I to it.

And we were his.

I lifted a hand, my fingers trembling slightly as I turned my wrist, staring at the golden mark that had bound me to him. The ink was still fresh, the skin beneath it still tender.

We had spoken the vows. We had chosen each other.

And for the first time in my life, I had chosen myself.

The lanterns in Dacre’s room flickered softly, their gold light dancing across the stone walls. I exhaled and lifted my fingers toward the flames. They bent toward me like a silent offering, as if the magic inside them recognized the shift within me.

Dacre stirred beside me, his breath warm against my shoulder, his arm still wrapped possessively around my waist. I lingered there, staring at him, committing this version of him to memory. His dark lashes resting against his skin, his brow furrowed slightly, even in sleep.

He was so vulnerable like this, when the rest of the world had been shut out, when it was only me and him.

My husband.

I wished to stay in this moment forever, to live in this space where he had sheltered us from the rest of the world, but reality slipped in, demanding my attention.

I carefully shifted out of Dacre’s grasp, but his fingers twitched in his sleep, reaching for me, even in unconsciousness.

I reached for my shirt, slipping the fabric over my head, my movements slow, careful. I could still feel the way his hands had traced my skin, still feel his mouth on me, and even now, my body ached for him as I finished dressing and slipped on my boots.

I glanced back at him, hesitating, before quickly grabbing a scrap of parchment from his desk.

My hand shook slightly as I wrote the words: I’m with Kai. I’ll be on the training grounds.

I was not running from him, not running from us, and even though I felt stronger, I still feared that I wouldn’t be able to control my power when I needed it most.

And everything inside me knew that no matter what happened, no matter what came, I would need it.

The narrow streets of the city were still shrouded in early morning quiet, the usual hum of rebellion life only just beginning to stir. I moved carefully, shoulders tense, my fingers brushing absentmindedly over the mark on my wrist. The soul-bond had settled inside me, and yet, my body still hummed with the aftershocks.

Like something was still shifting. Like something was still waking.

I reached the training caves and found Kai already waiting. He leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed, a dagger twirling between his fingers. The faint light of the torches caught the sharp angles of his face, the cool calculation in his dark eyes.

His gaze flicked over me once, then twice.

Not in the usual way he assessed an opponent, not like he was looking for a weakness. This was something else. Something careful.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d want to train today,” he said, his voice unreadable.

I rolled my shoulders, the weight of my power shifting inside me, like a second pulse. “I feel more ready to train today than ever before.”

Kai didn’t move. He only studied me. Too long. Too quiet.

Then, finally, he straightened.

He flipped the dagger in his palm with practiced ease. “All right, then.” His voice was lighter but not relaxed. “Let’s get to work.”

Kai held out a training sword, and I reached for it without thinking, my fingers tightening instinctively around the worn hilt.

The moment my skin met the leather, something stirred inside me. Not violently. Not like before. Not a force I was battling against.

It was there. Waiting.

A presence I could feel thrumming in my chest, buzzing beneath my skin. It wasn’t demanding. It wasn’t trying to take.

It was listening.

I exhaled sharply, shifting my stance as I tested the weight of the sword.

Kai was still watching me, but not like a sparring partner. Like someone who knew exactly what had happened last night and wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“The soul-bond,” he finally said, tilting his head. “It settled.”

It wasn’t a question.

I tightened my grip on the sword, leveling my gaze with his. “Yes.”

Kai hummed, flipping his dagger once more. “And?”

And?

I tried to find the right words, to explain the shift, the difference, but I didn’t know how to make him understand. Before, my magic had been like a storm, violent, unpredictable, impossible to contain. It lashed out when I was afraid. It took when it was desperate.

But the storm had settled.

It was now a shadow at my back. Not demanding. Not lashing. Just…there.

“I’m not fighting it anymore,” I admitted as I moved the sword from one hand to the other.

Kai’s brow furrowed slightly, and there was something about Kai that I couldn’t explain. Something about him that told me he saw far more than anyone else. “But you’re still afraid of it.”

My stomach twisted. I hated that he could see that.

“I’m not afraid of it.” I shifted my stance, bringing the sword up between us. “I’m afraid of what happens if I let go of it.”

A slow exhale. A sharp nod. He understood.

“Then let’s find out,” Kai murmured, and before I could react, he struck.

Kai’s blade came fast. Too fast. My instincts flared, a warning flashing behind my ribs. Danger. Threat. Move.

But before I could even think, my magic moved for me. It struck out, hungry, violent, fast. A blast exploded from my chest, an invisible force that lashed through the cavern like a whip.

Kai staggered back and let out a sharp, clipped grunt, and I watched in horror as blood trickled from his nose.

I hadn’t even touched him. I had barely moved, and yet, his blood was on me.

“Kai.” My voice cracked as I took a step toward him, but he lifted a hand, not to block me, but to stop me from speaking.

My stomach twisted. My pulse roared in my ears. I had done that.

I thought I would be able to stop it, to keep it locked inside, but my magic had broken past my grip like a flood through a crumbling dam.

Kai exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders before swiping the blood from beneath his nose with the back of his hand. “That wasn’t control.”

“I…I didn’t mean to.” My throat was closing. Panic threatened to take over.

Kai finally looked at me then, and something sharp and knowing flickered in his gaze.

“I know,” he murmured.

That somehow made it worse because it hadn’t mattered.

It hadn’t mattered that I didn’t want to hurt him. It hadn’t mattered that I had tried to keep it buried. It had still acted on its own.

Just like it had with Dacre. Just like it had with my father.

I took another step back, my pulse erratic. “I can’t?—”

“Yes, you can,” Kai interrupted, his voice steady. Certain.

I shook my head because he wasn’t listening. “You don’t understand.”

“I understand,” he said, tilting his head and watching me carefully. “I understand that you’re still trying to suppress it, and I understand that’s exactly why it keeps winning.”

I exhaled sharply, my stomach twisting violently. I knew he wasn’t wrong. I had spent so much of my life thinking I was powerless, and the moment I found it, I had tried to pretend I wasn’t this, tried to bury the truth of what I was so deep that no one, not even myself, could reach it.

But my magic had never needed permission to take. It had never asked. It had only waited. Waited for me to break.

Kai flipped his dagger in his hand again, his grip tightening. He was waiting and watching me in a way that made me want to run.

I swallowed hard. “Again.”

His gaze flickered over my face before falling to my hold on the sword. “Are you sure?”

I wasn’t, not at all, but I lifted my sword, adjusting my stance, forcing my feet to steady beneath me. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I needed to learn to control myself, to control my magic.

“Again,” I repeated.

Kai’s face shifted, something like approval, like recognition, flashing behind his dark gaze.

And then, he moved even faster than before.

His blade shot out, the edge of it gleaming in the flickering torchlight, and I reacted. Not with my magic. Not yet.

I sidestepped, just barely, his dagger missing me by the width of a breath. His weight shifted, his body turning too fast, and the hilt of his blade came for my jaw.

I lifted my sword, too slow. Kai struck, and pain cracked across my face, snapping my head to the side. I stumbled, my vision blurring. My heartbeat slammed against my ribs, and my magic surged forward in response.

I gritted my teeth, fighting it back, and when I looked back up at Kai, I could see it, the way he was holding back, the way he carefully planned his attack with enough force to pull my magic forward.

I planted my feet, blinking through the ache in my jaw, and forced my body back into position and waited.

Kai watched me carefully, cocking his head so slightly I almost didn’t notice. “You’re still holding it in.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t because he was right.

I was trying to stop it. Trying to keep it locked away, trying to suppress it because I didn’t trust myself with it.

Because I knew what it could do. I had felt what it had done to Dacre.

But Kai didn’t give me time to dwell. He lunged again.

I swung my sword, blocking the strike this time, my blade locking against his. Sparks cracked against the metal, but so did my control. My magic roared.

It slammed against my ribs, demanding release. I nearly let it. I nearly lost it again.

Kai paced in front of me. “You are a siphon, Verena, and that doesn’t just mean you will take from others. Your magic will take from you as well if you allow it.”

Memories of being in that room with the vessel surged through my mind, coursing through my body as my stomach rolled. I had felt it then, the overwhelming feeling as my own power intertwined with that of the vessel, threatening to consume me entirely, threatening to take what I wouldn’t willingly give.

I clenched my jaw, feeling the muscles tense beneath my skin, and I shifted my stance once more. “Again.”

Kai didn’t give me a chance to change my mind before his dagger sliced toward me again. I twisted, barely dodging, my back slamming into the rough stone wall behind me.

I had no escape, nowhere to go.

But he didn’t stop. He pressed forward, unrelenting, giving me no time to breathe. No time to think.

The tip of his blade angled toward my throat, and I brought my sword up in a blind strike.

The impact sent a jarring vibration through my arms, but it wasn’t enough.

He spun, his body moving like smoke, and the hilt of his blade crashed into my shoulder. Pain tore through me.

I stumbled, falling against the wall, and my magic swelled.

It wanted out. It surged forward, straining against me

I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to breathe, to hold it back.

“Get up, Verena.”

My magic screamed. A violent pulse slammed through my ribs, clawing its way up my throat, desperate to be free.

I lunged at Kai, throwing out my sword on instinct, but my grip was weak, my muscles burning from exhaustion. I didn’t come close to landing a hit.

The tip of the sword slammed against the ground, sparks flying around us, and my control slipped. My vision blurred.

I was back there with the vessel, trapped in that room, my magic being ripped from me, poured into something that devoured and devoured and devoured.

I couldn’t stop it.

The power in my veins snapped. I felt it break loose.

A violent, shuddering crackle of black mist curled from my fingertips, creeping outward, reaching, searching for something to take.

Kai cursed, stumbling back, his hands raised as if he could shield himself, but I could barely see him anymore.

Everything was fading. I was fading.

The magic wasn’t mine anymore. It was something else. Something hungry. Something unrelenting.

I gasped, fighting for air, for clarity, for control, and then I felt it. A sharp, searing warmth flared against my wrist.

I sucked in a breath, my entire body jolting as my wrist burned. I looked down at the golden symbol etched into my skin that now glowed.

Steady. Solid. A heartbeat against my own.

It wasn’t just a mark. It was a tether.

A tether to Dacre. To who I was. To who I wanted to be.

I clamped down on my magic with everything I had. I forced in a breath, fighting for clarity, for control, for myself. The golden glow of my mark pulsed in sync with my heartbeat.

Dacre. I could feel him.

Not just in my thoughts. I felt him in my bones. Like the moment we had spoken our vows and the bond had sealed between us. It was as if he was whispering my name from somewhere deep inside me.

The black tendrils of my power stilled, and I reached for it. I willed it to listen.

The dark mist curling from my fingertips didn’t lash outward. It didn’t take. It waited.

And when Kai moved again, when his blade came for me, my magic whispered through my veins, curling through my limbs like mist. His dagger moved toward me, and just as it was about to pierce my skin, I sidestepped, moving faster than I ever had before.

It was as if I too became a mist in the air, a part of the black smokiness of my magic.

Kai’s eyes widened in response, but I didn’t hesitate. I twisted, lifting my sword in my now steady hand, and brought the edge down against his chest, halting just a hair’s breadth before making contact.

Kai went rigid before me, and the cavern was enveloped in an echoing silence, broken only by the sound of our breathing.I met his gaze, and all I could see was his disbelief staring back at me. He had been expecting me to fail, to lose control, and I had expected it too.

I forced another slow breath through my lungs, my magic settling, twisting into something calmer. Something that was mine.

Kai’s lips parted slightly. “You…” He hesitated, shaking his head, like he couldn’t quite make sense of what he was seeing. “You controlled it.”

I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of the moment press into me.

A slow, deliberate clap echoed through the cavern. It was not a mockery, not approval, but something else. Something colder.

Dacre’s grandmother stepped forward from the shadows, her silver gaze locked on to me.

“You finally reached for it,” she murmured. “But can you wield it?”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “I just did.”

She tilted her head slightly, almost…amused. “No, child.” She took another slow step forward. “You controlled it once, but you need to command it.”

Kai’s shoulders tensed. “She’s already pushed herself enough today.”

Dacre’s grandmother turned her sharp gaze toward him, her face unreadable. “Leave us.”

Kai’s jaw ticked. His fingers flexed around the hilt of his dagger, his instincts battling his respect.

“Go, Kai. I’m fine.” I nodded toward the mouth of the cave where she had just entered.

He hesitated for a long moment before his nostrils flared and then his gaze flicked to me for a single look before he started to move.

Dacre’s grandmother stood motionless near the mouth of the cavern as she waited for Kai to pass, her gray hair pulled back in a tight bun, accentuating the sharpness of her features. Her eyes were piercing, carrying the weight and clarity that only came with a lifetime of accumulated wisdom.

She looked almost ethereal, as if she belonged in a world far different than our own.

Her sharp, calculating gaze absorbed every detail in the vast room before her eyes swept over me, lingering for much longer than was considered polite. And once Kai disappeared from view, she narrowed them, those eyes of molten silver.

“You still do not understand, do you?” she asked, her voice quiet as she moved, stepping closer to me. “What you are. What you could be.”

I swallowed hard, my pulse thudding in my ears.

“You are not just a siphon, Verena.” She took another step forward. “You are not just an heir to a throne.” Her gaze flickered downward to the golden mark on my wrist. “And you are no longer just a girl with power bound inside her.”

A chill slithered up my spine.

“You have never been powerless, but you have been trapped. But you are free,” she murmured. “The only question now is what you will do with it.”

Her fingers twitched at her side, and before I could react, a silver tendril of magic lashed toward me.

I gasped, my power instinctively slamming against it, meeting force with force.

A sharp crack split the air, the stone beneath me trembled, but Dacre’s grandmother only nodded. “You fight like your father.”

The words landed harder than any sword, and I went rigid, my pulse spiking. “I am not my father.”

She lifted her chin. “Then stop wielding your magic like he does.”

Something hot rushed up my throat. “And how would you have me wield it?”

Dacre’s grandmother exhaled, her expression unreadable. “Like your mother did.”

My stomach dropped. I swayed slightly where I stood, my body vibrating with something I didn’t understand.

“My mother never fought,” I said, my voice hoarse.

Dacre’s grandmother’s silver eyes burned. “Didn’t she?”

Silence slammed into me because I knew. I had always known.

My mother had fought when she gave up her kingdom. She had fought when she defied my father. She had fought when she bound my magic away to protect me.

She had fought for me.

I inhaled sharply, feeling the magic inside me shift.

“I am not my father,” I said again, my voice stronger this time.

Dacre’s grandmother tilted her head slightly. “Then prove it.”

I lifted my chin, and I did. I reached for my magic, not with fear or hesitation, but intention. The power that had once clawed at my ribs now curled into my palms, coiled around my bones. It was mine. It had always been mine.

I exhaled sharply and released it. Not in a wild burst or reckless destruction, but in command.

A tendril of dark energy spiraled from my fingertips, striking exactly where I willed it to go. The stones along the cavern floor cracked, not from chaos, but from precision.

Dacre’s grandmother’s silver eyes gleamed. She lifted her hand, and another strike of silver magic lashed toward me. I didn’t fight it. I didn’t panic. I let it come, and when it reached me, I took it.

My fingers twitched, and my magic swallowed hers whole, controlled it, molded it. I twisted my wrist, and the energy changed.

It didn’t shatter the ground. It didn’t destroy. It danced in my hands. Obedient. Steady. Mine.

Dacre’s grandmother’s lips parted, and then, so slightly that I could have imagined it, her head dipped with respect.

“Good,” she murmured. “But this is not the only power you command.”

My breath hitched, and I felt it before I saw it. The warmth curling beneath my skin, steady as a second pulse. The golden glow that singed on my wrist.

Dacre’s grandmother’s eyes burned into mine. “Call it.”

My pulse thundered.

“Call it,” she repeated, sharper this time. “Summon the strength you tethered yourself to.”

My stomach tightened, feeling the golden heat pour into my lungs, pressing into the edges of my mind. I reached for it, not a gentle warmth or a flicker of power, but a searing force. It poured into me, branding itself into my very bones.

It was not consuming, not demanding. It came willingly.

Dacre’s power flooded into me, and I gasped, my knees nearly buckling beneath me as my magic roared in response.

The bond ripped through me until I could feel the steady beat of his heart slamming against my own. I was overwhelmed by the unwavering presence of him, even though he was nowhere near this cavern.

The raw weight of him filled every corner of me, like sunlight pouring into a dark room, and I felt everything.

His focus.

His hunger.

His desperation to be at my side.

I reached for him, and the moment I did, I could feel him reaching back.

Verena. His voice wasn’t spoken. It was within me. A whisper pressed against my mind, curling around my throat.

My fingers twitched, and the magic surged higher, crackling against my skin like an electric storm. The golden light at my wrist flared, blending with the darkness of my own power, merging in a way that should have been impossible. The cave pulsed with energy, shaking beneath the weight of the connection stretching between us.

Dacre’s grandmother saw it too. The silver light of her own magic faltered, and then she spoke, her voice steady despite the undeniable shift in the air.

“You have called him,” she murmured.

I was shaking. Everything inside me trembled. Not from fear but from power.

The bond between us had never felt so visceral before.

I swallowed hard, forcing my pulse to steady. “I’m still here,” I whispered, more to myself than to her.

Dacre’s power curled into mine in response. I know.

The torches along the walls dimmed all at once, like the cavern itself was exhaling. The shaking stilled yet the bond didn’t fade. It anchored into mine.

Dacre’s grandmother was silent for a long moment before she took the smallest step forward and struck again.

I was so focused on the bond, on the way it consumed me, that I didn’t have time to see it before the force of her power slammed into me, knocking me to the ground. I gasped as my back hit the stone, magic writhing inside me, on the verge of unraveling completely.

“Get up.” Her voice was razor sharp.

I forced myself to my feet, my lungs heaving, my power still burning beneath my skin.

Dacre’s heartbeat pounded against mine, a steady drum in my ribs.

He felt me. He was coming for me.

I forced my shoulders back, locking my knees to keep them from trembling, and Dacre’s grandmother tilted her head.

“Your mother,” she murmured, “gave up everything for you.”

The words cut like a truth that had always been inside me, waiting to be spoken aloud.

Dacre’s grandmother exhaled, slow and measured. “She gave you this.” She nodded toward my wrist, toward the mark still glowing. “She gave you him.”

She paused, and all I could hear was my blood rushing in my ears.

“She gave you the choice to decide what you would become.”

My throat tightened. My mother had bound my power, not just to hide it, to protect me, to protect this.

The power coursing through my veins, the strength sinking into my bones, the bond thrumming beneath my skin.

She had bound me until I was ready, until I could wield it myself, until I could choose.

Dacre’s grandmother moved again, too fast, too powerful. She was a phantom in the dim cavern light, her movements sharp and lethal in a way I hadn’t expected from someone of her elderly appearance. I barely caught the flick of her wrist before another arc of power crackled through the air.

Desperation took over, and I threw up my hands, relying more on instinct than any skill, and my magic responded.

It surged through me like a raging river, coiling around me like an eager serpent ready to strike at my command.

Then, pain erupted, searing and tearing through my connection with my power.

The force of her attack crashed into me, sending me skidding backward across the cold, unforgiving stone floor. I sucked in a sharp breath as my back collided with the cavern wall, the impact rattling my bones.

“She believed in who you would become. She prayed to the old gods and the new, her hopes weaved into every plea, that when her daughter ascended to rule this kingdom, she would do so with a courage that surpassed her own and possess a strength that could bring an entire kingdom to its knees.”

A profound silence enveloped us as I climbed to my knees, the atmosphere around her shimmering with the raw intensity of her magic and the weight of her words.

I pushed off the ground and dusted the dirt from my hands.

“Are you to be that queen?” She cocked her head just as another brilliant wave of silver light surged forward.

My magic crackled beneath my skin like a thousand tiny storms. My breath slowed, becoming as calm and as rhythmic as the rise and fall of the ocean’s tide.

I forced my hands to steady.

A deep, throbbing pulse of power radiated out of me, colliding with the tendrils of magic she had directed toward us. It crashed into her power before it could reach me, but instead of blocking her power, instead of pushing it away, I took it.

The searing heat of her magic melded into mine, like a molten current merging into an already raging river.

Her eyes narrowed, the faintest glint of approval flickering across her face.

She moved again, but this time, I was ready. I planted my feet firmly into the ground, feeling the solid stone beneath me as I braced myself to meet her head-on.

Her power struck like a weapon that had been honed for centuries. Mine rose to meet it, raw and untempered.

A magic that was not solely mine, but somehow mine completely.

Heat pulsed relentlessly against my skin as our magic clashed violently, silver light spiraling into the power that coiled in my veins. The force of it sent jagged cracks snaking across the cavern floor beneath us, while dust billowed up in swirling clouds.

She barely faltered as she pressed her assault forward. A flick of her wrist, and daggers of pure energy formed at her fingertips.

My breath hitched, but I steeled myself, forcing an unwavering steadiness to take hold.

This was nothing like sparring with Kai. He had challenged me, pushed me to the brink to hone my control, but this was a different beast entirely.

Her fingers moved with a speed that was unnatural, twisting in a blur that caught the light, creating a fleeting glint that danced in the air.

Attempting to block her advance was impossible. Dodging it was futile.

A violent shock of power rippled through my body, like a wave crashing against the shore. It reached for hers, like it was grasping for air, hungrily devouring the raw energy she hurled at me. The sheer force of mine and Dacre’s power made my pulse falter, my skin burn, but I held steady until she stilled, watching as the last remnants of her power fused into me.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and I braced myself for what she would do next.

But she did something I wasn’t prepared for, something I didn’t expect.

“You are no longer the girl your mother and I hid away,” she declared, her voice resolute.

The words hit me with a force stronger than even her power had been, causing a sharp exhale to leave my lips and a deep burn to form in my lungs.

“No. I am not.”

She nodded once, almost to herself. “And you will fight?” She watched me carefully, like she was looking for someone she used to know, looking for any parts of my mother that still lived within me. “For your kingdom, for your bond?”

Dacre’s pulse slammed into mine. I breathed in. Steady. Strong.

Then I lifted my chin. “Yes.”

She reached for the wall beside her, her fingers pressing against the rough stone, steadying herself, and her breath left her in a slow, measured exhale.

Then she lowered herself carefully, her bones trembling as she bent her knee and let it land gently on the ground.

I tried to breathe, tried to force breath into my lungs, and when her eyes met mine again, they burned into me.

“Then I will fight at your side, Verena. I will fight for you as I once fought for your mother.”

She pressed her palm to the cavern floor. “You are not just an heir, not just a warrior.”

A whisper of her power rippled through the stone. “You are the last daughter of Veyrith. The next Queen of Marmoris.

Then, ever so slowly, she lowered her head. “You are the ruler that will unite us all.”