Her skin cracked first, thin glowing fissures racing across her throat and jaw. Smoke curled from the wounds, followed by a low, rising hiss as if the fire inside her had been waiting for this exact moment to breathe. She clawed at the blade, but her fingers blistered instantly, flesh blackening before our eyes. Heat shimmered around her, the air bending and buckling.
Then she ignited.
Flames roared out from the wound, swallowing her neck, her hair, and her scream. Her body arched, burning from the inside out, edges collapsing into glowing embers that drifted away on the air like falling stars. The last thing to crumble was her glare—still hateful, still locked on Adelaide—before it disintegrated into ash and scattered across the floor.
Ubel screamed, but Zane’s fire and Zeke’s ice hit him at the same time, pinning him helpless until Oren’s shadows wrapped around his wrists and throat.
Mom cleaned her blade with a steady hand. She spoke, voice not trembling in the least. “Thank you, my queen. I’ve waited a long time to end her.”
The Ancestors whispered through me, satisfied.
The chamber settled.
The light dimmed.
My feet touched the ground again—but the power didn’t vanish.
I walked forward, glowing, part goddess, part woman.
All queen—and everyone bowed.
I approached Mom and drew Frostbane from its sheath. Then turned and slid it into Ubel’s chest with a sound more like shattering glass than tearing flesh, the blade’s icy magic racing ahead of the steel. His breath hitched—one sharp, shocked inhale—before a plume of white mist burst from his mouth, frosting the air between us. The cold spread violently, spiderwebbing across his skin in jagged crystalline patterns, freezing him from the inside out.
He tried to speak, but his lips had already turned blue, then pale, then translucent as the frost consumed him. A heartbeat later, the ice surged outward in a brutal snap, encasing his entire body in a glassy shell. Cracks formed instantly—hairline fractures shooting through him like lightning—until with a final, brittle gasp, Ubel shattered.
He broke apart in a burst of glittering shards, scattering across the stone like crushed diamonds, the remnants of him dissolving into drifting frost that vanished before it touched the ground.
“That’s for killing one ofMINE!”
I turned, tears rising again, as the ancestral glow softened around Trent’s still form. Handsome beyond belief even in death.
“Rest now,” I whispered. “I’ll see you when this life is done.”
And I could swear I heard him reply, “Live well, little Bellator. I’ll be waiting.”
We carried Trent’s body as we walked out of the chamber—Rue leaning heavily on Sly, Mom at my side, my men surrounding me like a shield.
I was shocked to see a giant creature I thought was a myth, dismembered and dead, right outside the room.
I looked to Oren in question, and he just smiled that arrogant smile that filled my heart with love. “A small problem we had to get through to reach you.”
I arched one brow, “I’d like to hear the whole story at some point.”
“You absolutely will since I’m the hero of the tale.” Zane puffed out his chest.
Zeke rolled his eyes, “Of course you were.”
We stepped out into the open air, just as dawn was breaking across the mountains.
And all of Aurathia seemed to be waiting.
Fellats—dozens of them, summoned by Pantar and Mila—bowed low, tentacles rippling like banners. Pantar pushed forward, giving a deep, reverent rumble.
The Varruk warriors, towering and fearsome, slammed their fists to their chests the moment they saw me. Kharox—the one who had chosen me first—stepped forward and bent one knee, then ran a single claw down his sternum. All of them looked as if they’d been involved in a battle of epic proportions. It seemed I’d missed some things while I was in the chamber.
“My queen,” he growled.
Behind them, warriors from the caves of Nyberie gathered in ranks, eyes shining with awe.
