Page 62 of Crowned By the Shadow
“The pendant can, theoretically, open up a portal directly into her prison. The crown can push the darkness back, and the mirror can show her the truth. Infuse all of that with the power of the Moon Blades and show her who she really was, who she still is.” Volker’s voice grew more confident as he spoke.
I glanced down at the pendant resting on my chest and the weak light it emitted. “I’d need to get closer, and I’d need to borrow power from all of you. A lot of power.”
They all nodded in agreement and without saying another word, we all slowly edged forward, watching for any sign of the Empress and her darkness.
As we approached the heart of the prison, the artifacts in my hands pulsed in unison, their energies blending into something new. The Veilshard Pendant floated upward from my chest, spinning slowly in the air before me. The Starforged Mirror and Eclipsed Crown followed, rising to orbit around the pendant like planets around a sun.
“What’s happening?” Ronan whispered, his hand instinctively reaching for his weapon.
“They’re combining,” Wyn breathed, her twilight eyes wide with wonder. “The artifacts are becoming what they were always meant to be.”
The three relics spun faster, their individual forms blurring until they melded into a single object, a crown unlike anything I’d ever seen. Half silver like moonlight, half gold like the sun, with a central gem that shifted between darkness and light with each pulse.
It hovered before me, waiting.
“Take it,” Van urged, his voice carrying the weight of ages. “The Twilight Crown was made for you, Eclipse Child.”
I reached out with trembling hands, but as my fingers brushed against the crown’s surface, a shimmering barrier appeared, pushing me back.
“What’s wrong?” Thorn asked, stepping closer.
“It requires proof,” Van said quietly, his brows drawn together as though he was fighting to remember this for us. “A sacrifice from each of you to show your worthiness.”
“What kind of sacrifice?” I asked, dread pooling in my stomach.
“Not blood,” Van assured me. “Something more precious. Something that defines who you are.”
The crown pulsed, and suddenly I understood. It wasn’t asking for our lives, but for pieces of ourselves, the parts we clung to most desperately.
“I’ll go first,” I said, stepping forward. The crown’s light intensified, bathing me in its glow. In my mind, I saw flashes of my past: the orphaned girl in the human realm, the soldier hiding her true nature, the outsider in the fae courts.
“The crown wants your connection to your old life,” Wyn said softly, reading the energies. “Your identity before you became the Eclipse Child.”
I closed my eyes, feeling the weight of that request. My past had shaped me, defined me for so long. To surrender it felt like losing a part of myself. But I thought of all we’d been through, all that was at stake, and knew what I had to do.
“I offer my connection to who I was,” I said, my voice steady despite the pain in my heart. “The girl who never belonged, the soldier who hid in the shadows. I release that identity to embrace what I must become.”
A silver thread seemed to pull from my chest, carrying with it memories and emotions, the fear of discovery, the loneliness ofbeing different, the comfort of anonymity. The crown absorbed it, glowing brighter.
Thorn stepped forward next, his face set with determination. The crown’s light played across his features, highlighting the Sun Court mark in his eye.
“It wants your warrior identity,” I told him, sensing the crown’s desire. “The general, the perfect soldier of the Sun Court, and the King’s Blade.”
Thorn’s jaw tightened. That identity had been his anchor for centuries, the core around which he’d built his entire existence. To surrender it meant stepping into unknown territory, becoming something new and undefined.
“I offer my identity as a warrior,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “The general who followed orders without question, the soldier who put duty above all else. The spy who could barely bring himself to fight for what he truly wanted. I release that self to become what I must be.”
A golden thread emerged from him, carrying the weight of battles fought, orders given, the rigid discipline that had governed his life. The crown accepted his sacrifice, growing brighter still.
Wyn approached next, her twilight-touched form shimmering in the crown’s light.
“It wants your certainty,” I said, reading the crown’s intention. “Your vision of the future you thought you’d have.”
Tears glistened in Wyn’s starlit eyes. “I offer my certainty,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “The comfort of knowing what might be, the security of glimpsing the paths ahead. I release that knowledge to embrace the unknown.”
A thread of shadow and light pulled from her, carrying visions and possibilities that dissolved into the crown’s growing radiance.
Volker stepped forward. “I already know what it wants from me,” he murmured. “I surrender my love, my hope for a relationship that was never meant to be. As such, I release that desire and embrace the pain of heartbreak.” A pink thread drifted lazily forward toward the crown.
