Page 95 of Crown of Ashes and Desire

“Separate them!” Midas commanded, and his soldiers moved with unnerving synchronization, forming two rings—one around Ada, one around me.

Golden chains materialized from the ground, wrapping around Ada’s wrists and ankles. She cried out when the metal seared her flesh, light flaring defensively.

“MIDAS!” My voice thundered through the clearing, and dropped the temperature by twenty degrees in an instant. Theground beneath me cracked and frosted over. My power surged. “Release her NOW!”

I didn’t wait for his response. Darkness exploded from me in a tidal wave of raw destructive force. The shadows didn’t just move—they hunted, sentient in their rage. They tore through the golden soldiers, not merely killing but obliterating them. Bodies didn’t just fall—they disintegrated, reduced to particles and then to nothing. Darkness consumed them utterly.

The air itself seemed to darken around me, daylight receding as if frightened. Blood misted the air where my shadows struck, golden rather than red, evaporating into acrid smoke on contact with my power.

“You dare touch what’s mine?” My voice had changed, and resonated with the ancient power of all Shadow Lords before me. The veins in my arms ran black beneath my skin when I accessed deeper, more primal shadow magic than I’d used in years. “I will flay the gold from your bones and cast your soul into eternal darkness!”

I strode forward, not walked but stalked, each step leaving blackened earth in my wake. Soldiers that rushed me simply ceased to exist, their screams cut short while shadow consumed them. But still they came, still Midas conjured more, a lethal barrier forming between me and Ada.

Through our binding, I could feel Ada’s pain—the gold burning her skin, her light struggling against the foreign magic. Her agony fueled my rage, shadows coalescing around me resembling a living armor, tendrils whipping outward with lethal precision. I was no longer just Hakan, but the Shadow Lord in full might, unleashed.

“She’s quite magnificent,” Midas observed, and strolled toward Ada. His golden boots left molten footprints. “Gün Ata’s daughter. The last true light-bearer.” He reached out toward her cheek.

Before his fingers could make contact, a shadow tendril as thick as my arm lashed out, severing his hand at the wrist. Golden ichor sprayed across the clearing. Midas howled in shocked pain.

“Touch her and lose more than a hand,” I snarled, my voice deeper, distorted by the shadows swirling around me. “That was your only warning, Midas.”

The severed appendage dissolved into golden particles, and already a new hand was forming at the end of his wrist, gold magic reconstructing what he’d lost. His face contorted with rage, the madness in his eyes burning hotter.

“You think to challenge me? ME?” he screamed, spittle mixing with molten gold at the corners of his mouth. “I am becoming a GOD!”

“You’re becoming nothing but a memory,” I countered, and drew more darkness to me. The shadows of the entire forest seemed to bend toward me, feeding my power.

Midas gestured violently, and his remaining soldiers charged at once. Twenty, thirty golden warriors converging on me from all directions.

I didn’t move. Didn’t have to.

With a thought, I condensed shadow into armor that covered me from head to toe, ancient patterns appearing in the darkness—the ceremonial battle garb of the first Shadow Lord. Then I extended my hand, and darkness coalesced into a massive blade of pure shadow-stuff, drinking in all light that touched it.

The first soldier reached me. I moved with preternatural speed, the shadow blade cleaving through golden armor as if it were paper. The second and third fell just as quickly, their bodies crumbling into dust before they hit the ground.

“Is this the best you can do?” I taunted Midas while I carved through his forces, each strike precise and devastating. “Send children against me while you hide behind your corruption?”

But they kept coming, an endless wave of golden puppets. For every five I destroyed, Midas formed ten more, each one drawing from his seemingly limitless reserves of corrupted power. Sweat beaded on my brow. I maintained the shadow armor, each soldier I destroyed requiring energy I couldn’t afford to spend.

Midas knew it, too. His manic smile returned when he saw me falter for just a moment, a split second where my blade moved a fraction slower than before.

“Tiring already, Shadow Lord?” he called, and circled around toward Ada again. “Your father would be disappointed. Erlik would have leveled this entire forest by now.”

“I’m not my father,” I growled. I decapitated three soldiers with a single sweep of my blade.

“No,” Midas agreed, his voice dropping to a dangerous purr. “You’re weaker. Softer. Tainted by love.” He pressed his palm to Ada’s sternum. “Shall we see what happens when I extract her light?”

Golden light pooled around his hand, boring into Ada's chest with relentless precision. Her back arched in agony, a scream tearing from her throat while Midas began pulling her light from her body. A luminous golden thread emerged from her chest, winding around his hand.

Via our binding, I felt it—felt the violation while he reached for her very essence. Our connection transformed her pain into mine, amplifying it until it became unbearable. White-hot agony lanced across my chest, someone having thrust a molten blade into my heart.

The pain triggered something primal within me. The shadows around me grew darker, denser, while I drew on the most forbidden shadow magic—the kind that required blood sacrifice. My blood.

“Enough games,” I snarled, and bit down hard on my tongue. Blood filled my mouth, metallic and hot. I spit it into my palm, where it hissed and smoked, merging with my shadow magic. “ENOUGH!”

I hurled the blood-infused shadow directly at Midas—not at his body, but at the golden thread connecting him to Ada. The shadow-bolt moved faster than thought, leaving a trail of absolute darkness in its wake.

The shadow-bolt struck true, slicing through the golden thread with a sound of screaming metal. The strand of light hung suspended for a heartbeat then snapped back to Ada with whiplash force. She gasped when her stolen essence returned, her light flaring brighter than ever.

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