Page 66 of Crown of Storm and Silence
"Her heart," one healer gasps. "It's slowing."
I watch in horror as the spaces between beats grow longer. Five seconds. Ten. Fifteen.
"We're losing her!" the chief healer shouts. "Bring the soul anchors!"
They place obsidian stones carved with binding runes around her body, but the moment they activate, she convulses violently, back arching off the table as she screams—a sound so full of agony it shatters two of the healing crystals.
"The anchors are hurting her!" I roar. "Stop!"
"If we stop, she dies!"
"She's dying anyway!"
They remove the stones, and she collapses back onto the slab, even stiller than before. For one terrifying moment, I think we've lost her completely.
"My lord," the chief healer says, voice heavy with defeat. "Perhaps you should... say goodbye. While there's still time."
"No." The word tears from my throat. "There has to be something else."
"We've tried everything. The venom is too strong, the damage too severe. Even shadow healing cannot?—"
"Then I'll try something else."
I press both hands to her chest, my shadows pouring out—not the destructive darkness I wielded in the tower, but the healing essence that flows from the very core of shadow magic. Dark tendrils seep into her skin, following her bloodstream.
For a moment, it seems to work. Her breathing deepens slightly.
Then she screams again, her body rejecting the shadow healing violently. Black veins spread across her skin from where my hands touch her.
"You're killing her faster!" the chief healer cries. "The light in her fights your darkness!"
I pull back, watching in horror as the black veins slowly recede but leave her weaker than before. Her breathing is now barely visible, just the slightest movement of her chest.
"The baby's heartbeat," an assistant whispers. "I can't... I can't find it anymore."
Desperation claws at my throat. I've tried everything—my shadows, the healers' magic, every resource of the Shadow Court. Nothing works. She's slipping away, and our child with her.
In that moment of absolute despair, I do something I haven't done in centuries.
I fall to my knees beside the healing slab and pray.
"Please," I whisper, my voice breaking as I press my forehead to the cold stone floor. "Gün Ata, lütfen..."
The words tear from my soul in the language of my childhood, before darkness claimed me. "Light Father, I know I have no right to ask. I know what I am, what I've become. But she... she is pure light. She doesn't deserve this."
The healers exchange shocked glances—the Shadow Lord on his knees, praying to the god of light.
"Take my darkness," I plead, tears streaming down my face. "Take everything I am if you must. But let them live. I'll give up the throne, the power, everything my father built. I'll stop the war, turn against him, seek the peace you've always wanted between our worlds."
Her heart stops.
The chief healer steps forward. "My lord?—"
"GET BACK!" I roar, then return to my desperate prayer. "Please, I know I'm a monster. I know I've killed, conquered, destroyed. But don't punish them for my sins. The child is innocent. Nesilhan is good, pure, everything I'm not."
Still nothing. She lies still as death, skin going from gray to white.
"I'll tear down everything I've built," I continue, my voice cracking completely. "Every fortress, every shadow army. I'll spend eternity serving the light if that's what you want. I'll submit to any punishment, any torment, but please... they are the only light left in me. Without them, I am nothing but the weapon my father forged."
