Dreading.
The room closes in, the others converging on the altar.
Until—
A plume of green flares, glowing vibrant and alive on the altar.
I fucking did it.
“You’re brilliant,” Kael approves from behind him.
But Seren presses on. “One seal—royal blood spilled by the murder of kin.”
And my fucking heart stops.
I look to Morrathys, pleading, desperate.
“Break the bargain,” I beg, pushing to stand, surging towards him. “Let Kael kill him.Please.”
His godly face looks down at mine, stoic and unmoving. “No.”
My heart lurches in my chest.
Disbelieving of the wrongness. The imbalance.Themissing piece.
My mother’s voice carries on the chamber’s air like a lullaby. “It’s okay, Little Star,” she soothes.
Her presence is felt beside me.
Warm, nurturing, and for once, I let myself feel it. I let her soothe me.
“It’s not,” I sob, my shoulders slumping forward, my Starforged Blade going slack in my hand.
But Kael’s large frame wraps around mine. My Sky.
“I’m sorry, my love,” he breathes into my ear, his voice full of regret.
“Wh—”
But my words are cut off.
His hand finds mine.
I don’t have time to turn before he guides my arm—firm, unyielding—driving the blade forward.
There’s a heartbeat of silence.
A single inhale.
Then the sound of steel through flesh.
My mother gasps—soft, human, heartbreaking—and collapses into my arms.
Her blood spills across our hands, blending with the blood already dried on Kael’s knuckles.
A shocked whimper tears free.
“No. No. No. NO!” I scream.
