Page 50 of Crowned By the Shadow
Chapter
Sixteen
Senara
The sun climbed higher as we prepared for our return to the Obsidian Keep. My stomach churned with equal parts determination and dread, but I forced those feelings down. Van and Volker needed us, and I wouldn’t abandon them to Eldric’s cruelty or for him to use them as leverage over me.
Wyn sat cross-legged at the edge of our small camp, her eyes closed in concentration as she continued mapping the shadows within the fortress. The transformation had changed her in ways I was still struggling to understand. Light and darkness danced across her skin in perfect harmony, neither overpowering the other.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, sitting beside her.
Her eyes opened, those new starlit irises focusing on me. “Different,” she admitted. “But not in a bad way. It’s like I’ve been living with only half my senses, and now everything is... more.”
“Does it hurt?” I couldn’t help asking, remembering the agony on her face when the corruption had first spread through her.
“Not anymore.” She held up her hand, watching shadows swirl across her palm. “The darkness isn’t fighting me now. We’ve reached an understanding.”
I nodded, though I couldn’t fully comprehend what she was experiencing. “And the Empress? Can you still feel her?”
Wyn’s expression darkened. “Always. Like a whisper at the back of my mind. She’s furious that I escaped her control, but also... curious. She didn’t expect this outcome.”
“Neither did we,” I said with a small smile.
“Senara.” Wyn’s voice grew serious. “There’s something you should know about the Empress. Something I glimpsed when I was connected to her.”
I tensed, bracing myself. “What is it?”
“She wasn’t always what she is now. Before the corruption, she was something else—something ancient and powerful, but not evil. She wouldn’t let me see what exactly, but I know it’s true, like I know my own name.” Wyn’s eyes seemed to look through me, into some distant past as she chewed on her lip, clearly debating what she was about to say. “I think she was once a guardian, like the goddess you serve.”
The revelation sent a chill down my spine. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know exactly. The memories were fragmented, distorted. But there was a betrayal...” Wyn shook her head. “Whatever she once was, she’s consumed by darkness now. And she’s determined to remake all realms in her image.”
Before I could ask more questions, Thorn approached, his expression grim. “We’re ready. Ronan’s found a path that should keep us hidden until we reach the mountains.”
I rose, offering Wyn my hand. “Time to go.”
We traveled swiftly, using the pendant’s power to speed up our journey. By late afternoon, we stood in the shadow of the mountains that flanked the Obsidian Keep. The fortress hungsuspended between them, a monument to impossible power and ancient magic.
“There,” Wyn whispered, pointing to a narrow crevice in the mountainside. “The shadows are thinnest there.”
We approached cautiously, every sense alert for danger. The air felt heavy, charged with the same malevolent energy that permeated the fortress above. But something was different this time, I could feel it in my bones, in the way my mark responded to our surroundings.
“The corruption is spreading,” Ronan observed, his voice tight. “It’s stronger than before.”
“The convergence approaches,” Wyn confirmed. “The Empress grows stronger with each passing hour.”
We reached the crevice, barely wide enough for one person to slip through at a time. Wyn placed her hands against the stone, and shadows gathered around her fingers.
“I’ll go first,” she said. “Follow close behind me.” She stepped into the crevice and seemed to melt into the darkness. One moment she was there, the next gone, as if the shadows had swallowed her whole.
Thorn went next, then Ronan. I hesitated for just a heartbeat, the memory of our last visit to the Keep flashing through my mind. Then I stepped forward, letting the darkness envelop me.
It was like diving into ice water, shocking and disorienting. I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, could barely breathe. The shadows pressed against me from all sides, thick and viscous. Just when panic rose in my throat, a hand caught mine. Wyn was there, guiding me through the darkness.
We emerged into a narrow tunnel carved from the same obsidian crystal as the fortress. Veins of corruption pulsed through the walls, but they seemed to shy away from Wyn’s presence, curling back oil from water.
“This way,” she whispered, leading us deeper into the mountain.
