(Kael's POV)
The throne room was silent but for the distant echoes of a war that refused to end.
The crown in my hand weighed heavier than ever, forged not just from steel, obsidian, and fire—but from broken promises and blood spilled.
I'd shaped a kingdom from ash and betrayal, but the silence in my bones whispered a truth I couldn't ignore:
This war wasn't over.
Somewhere, in the shadows beyond my reach, the storm was gathering again.
A force born of light and dark—of exile and shadows.
I could feel it, like a song in the wind, faint but relentless.
A name I dared not speak.
Lyra.
My Love.
My Queen.
She wasn't just a memory anymore.
She was the reckoning.
And as the embers of the past glowed dimly around me, I knew our fates would collide.
Because the queen waiting in the shadows was ready to rise, and she was going to burn anything and everything that threatened to ruin or hurt what she had built.