He set his shoulders, every muscle carved with ruin.
He answered—voice low as death itself.
“I will rise. And when I do…”
His gaze seared into hers.
“I’m coming for your crown.”
“Viktor!” Amerei’s scream tore against the silence.
The dragon roared—fire detonating in answer, a furnace gale swallowing marble and banners alike.
Viktor crossed his blades. His chest was already blackened, the burn sinking deep as he wrenched the wall’s corners down with raw force.
The chamber split apart, spell-veins shattering in an eruption of light and smoke. The breach blew open. Night slammed in, stars tearing wide across the ruin.
The blast hurled Viktor backward, body flung through the gap, blood and ash trailing in his wake.
He vanished into the dark,
a soldier consumed by ruin and claimed by the night sky—
leaving her cry echoing through the breach like a vow the stars themselves refused to swallow.
Chapter Thirty-Six
I’m Here
Lashed to ruin but not yet lost, he burned—and still, she claimed him.
The stars wheeled above him, bright, eternal.
Orion—the Hunter—dominated the sky, his belt of three stars blazing side by side.
Three stars.
One lost.
One burning.
One waiting in shadow.
And Viktor refused to fall beneath them.
Darkness tore at him, dragging him down.
“Not yet.”
The voice cracked like thunder, primal and relentless.
His eyes snapped, searching.
A flicker—lightning split the night.
A hooded figure stood, staff driven deep into earth, sightless gaze locked on him.
Gone. Then back. Then gone again.
