Page 114 of Crown of Ashes and Desire

The portal shimmered to life between her outstretched palms, a doorway to somewhere far from here. Midas stepped toward it, dragging Kiraz with him. The child reached desperately toward Ada, her small face contorted with terror.

"Mama!" she screamed, the word echoing in the chamber with piercing clarity.

"Martha, come!" Midas barked as he stepped toward the portal with Kiraz. The compulsion forced Martha to her feet, her face a mask of despair as she stumbled toward the shimmering doorway against her will. "I'm sorry," she whispered one final time to Ada before the magical control dragged her through the portal. The moment all three figures disappeared, the portal snapped shut behind them.

Silence fell in the chamber, the emptiness crushing in the wake of the abduction. The chamber felt hollow and empty. Three people had vanished through that portal—Midas, Kiraz, and Martha, all gone to whatever destination the fae magic had opened. Outside, the sounds of battle were escalating—Sarp and Melo were still fighting the remaining guards, their diversion working too well as more enemies rushed to engage them, leaving them unable to reach us in time.

I moved to the window, trying to summon shadows to signal our allies. The power came weakly—the amulet's corruption had left traces of its suppression in my magical channels, like poison that would take time to fully clear. Eventually a dim flare appeared. Within moments, I saw Melo's fox form racing across the courtyard, Sarp limping behind her but keeping pace through sheer determination.

I turned slowly to Ada, who had collapsed to her knees, her face stricken with grief and terror. The word Kiraz had screamed hung between us like a revelation.

"Mama," I repeated, my voice barely more than a whisper. "She called you 'Mama.'"

Ada raised her eyes to mine, tears cutting clean tracks through the blood and grime on her face. "Hakan?—"

"Is she mine?" The question emerged as if torn from the depths of my soul. "Is Kiraz my daughter?"

Ada

The silence stretched between us, endless and suffocating. I knelt on the cold stone floor of Karanlik Kule, ears still ringing with my daughter's terrified cry. My daughter. Our daughter. The secret I had guarded with my life for five years, ripped away in a moment of chaos and betrayal.

Hakan stood before me, his breathing heavy and uneven. The effects of the shadow-blocking amulet had faded after Midas disappeared through the portal, allowing Hakan's powers to gradually return. Now his shadows were writhing around him like living things, growing stronger with each passing moment as his power gradually returned to full strength. His face was a mask of shock and dawning fury, green eyes burning with questions I had no strength to answer.

"Ada." My name on his lips was both plea and accusation. "Fucking answer me."

My throat constricted painfully when I stared up at him, my mind racing through five years of careful secrecy— all of it destroyed in an instant. How could I explain that I'd tried to tell him? That I'd gone to the shadow council first, begging for an audience, only to be turned away by lords who told me he was too busy for such trivial matters? That I'd then stood outside our home for hours in the pouring rain, waiting for him to return, but he never came? The memory of his voice from before echoed in my head: "I don't want children. Ever. The very thought repulses me." Words he'd spoken so casually, yet they had shaped every decision I'd made since.

I opened my mouth, but no words came, my fingernails digging crescents into my palms while I fought to maintain what little composure I had left.

"Answer me!" His voice cracked with something beyond anger—perhaps fear, perhaps dread of confirmation.

What could I possibly say to explain five years of secrets? How could I make him understand that everything—every choice, every lie, every moment of separation—had been to protect Kiraz from a world that would use her as a weapon?

The tower trembled suddenly with the impact of footsteps rushing up the stairs. A moment later, Sarp and Melo burstthrough the shattered doorway, weapons drawn, faces flushed from battle.

"We cleared the lower levels," Sarp announced breathlessly, taking in the scene—Ada kneeling on the floor, the shattered remnants of magical battle around them. "Found evidence of a struggle in the main hall—scorch marks and residual portal magic. No other enemies, but there are traces of fairy magic mixed with shadow residue. Whatever happened here was planned." His eyes darted between us, sensing the charged atmosphere. "What the hell happened here? Where's Kiraz?"

"Midas had help," I said, my voice hollow. "Martha opened a portal just as Midas grabbed Kiraz. I tried to reach them, but they disappeared through it before I could stop them."

"Drunken Martha?" Melo's eyes widened with recognition. "Martha swore neutrality in the realm of conflict. Why would she—" She stopped, her expression darkening. "Unless Midas was controlling her somehow."

"Martha wouldn't help him willingly," Melo continued grimly. "She's always been fiercely protective of children. If she opened that portal..." Her fox ears flattened against her head. "Midas must have found a way to control her. Fairy-bloods are vulnerable to certain shadow magics if they're caught off guard."

"Is Kiraz my fucking daughter Ada?" Hakan's question cut through the room with sharp precision, silencing all other conversation.

When I didn't answer immediately, his control slipped further. The shadows around him darkened, temperatures plummeting when his power flared, wild and dangerous.

"IS SHE MY DAUGHTER?" he roared, the force of his demand shaking dust from the ancient ceiling.

Melo gasped, one hand flying to her mouth. Sarp went very still.

At that moment, time seemed to slow. I saw the desperation in Hakan's eyes, the tightly coiled tension in his body. I thought of Kiraz—her stubborn chin, so like his, her fearlessness in the face of danger, her shadow magic that had reached instinctively for his. All these years of hiding, of protection, of lies—and now she was gone, taken because I hadn't been strong enough to save her. The weight of truth pressed against my chest.

I raised my eyes to Hakan's, tears spilling down my cheeks.

"Yes."

The single word shattered something inside him. Hakan went utterly still, his face draining of all color as the truth settled into his bones. His shadows writhed once, violently, then pulled tight against his body as if wounded. For a moment that stretched like eternity, he simply stared at me—this woman who had carried his secret for five years, who had borne his child in solitude while he played at being a shadow lord.

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