Page 43 of Crowned By the Shadow
“A day,” Ronan answered from where he stood guard at the edge of the clearing.
“You needed the rest. We all did,” Thorn said, handing me a water skin. “You channeled more power than any mortal should be able to survive.”
I drank deeply, the cool water soothing my parched throat. As I lowered the skin, I noticed my hands, the Moon Mark still spiraled across my skin, but the corruption that had threaded through it was gone, replaced by thin lines of gold that hadn’t been there before.
“What happened to my mark?” I asked, turning my hands over in wonder.
Wyn moved closer, her new starlit eyes examining the changes. “Balance,” she said simply. “Just as I found balance between light and darkness, your mark has found balance between moon and sun.”
“The Sun Court,” I murmured, remembering Sebastian’s revelation about my parentage. “My father was Sun Court royalty.”
Thorn nodded. “The gold in your mark represents that heritage. It was always there, just dormant until now.”
I traced the new golden patterns with my fingertip, feeling a strange resonance as I did so. “I saw them,” I said quietly. “My parents. In my dream. And the Empress.”
The atmosphere around the fire changed immediately, tension crackling like the flames.
“What did she show you?” Wyn asked, leaning forward.
I described the dream, the void of stars, the Empress in her true form, my parents appearing to warn me, the choice the Empress claimed all Eclipse Children must make. I spared them the visions she gave me after that, since I knew none of it was real. It was all just dreams that she had sent to scare me.
“She’s trying to manipulate you,” Ronan said flatly when I finished. “Using your desire to know your parents against you.”
“Maybe,” I conceded. “But it felt real. They felt real. It’s not the first time she’s visited me while I was unconscious, either.”
Thorn nodded. “The Empress is powerful. When we’re unconscious, it’s like she can reach through the barrier between worlds and use her power to sway us to her side.”
Wyn’s expression grew thoughtful. “The convergence is coming. The barriers between realms are thinning, and her prison is weakening. It’s possible that what you have experienced when she’s spoken with you was a genuine connection, not just a dream.”
“What did your parents say, exactly?” Thorn asked, his face serious. I appreciated him pushing us past the question of whether or not it was real. He believed me. He’d even experienced it himself, so I was happy to move on.
I closed my eyes, trying to recall their exact words. “They said I was stronger than they were. That the artifacts would guide me. To trust myself.” I opened my eyes again, meeting Thorn’s gaze. “And to remember what I’m fighting for.”
“And the Empress?” Wyn prompted. “What did she want?”
“For me to join her. To ‘embrace transformation’ instead of fighting it. Same as usual, really.” I shuddered at the memory of those ancient, terrible eyes. “She called it evolution. Said what we call corruption is just change that we fear because we can’t control it.”
“Classic manipulation,” Ronan scoffed. “Make evil sound reasonable, make resistance sound like fear or weakness.”
“But what if there’s truth in it?” Wyn asked quietly, looking down at her transformed hands where shadows and light danced across her skin. “Not in joining her, but in understanding that not all transformation is corruption.”
“Like what happened to you,” I said, understanding dawning.
She nodded. “The darkness tried to consume me, but instead, we found balance. Transformation without corruption.”
The fire crackled as we all fell silent, considering the implications of her words. Finally, Thorn spoke.
“Whatever the truth, we know this, the Empress is coming. The convergence approaches. And we need to be ready.”
“How?” Ronan asked. “We barely escaped with our lives last time, and that was just Eldric and his forces. How do we face the Empress herself?”
“The artifacts,” I said, remembering my father’s words from the dream. “They’ll guide us.”
I reached for the pendant at my throat, feeling its reassuring weight. The Crown and Mirror lay nearby, their surfaces reflecting the firelight. Together with the blades, they had saved Wyn, transformed her into something new. Could they do the same for the world when the Empress broke free?
“We need to understand them better,” Thorn said, following my gaze to the artifacts. “Their true purpose, their full power.”
“And we need allies,” Ronan added. “This isn’t a fight we can win alone.”
