CROWNED IN CRIMSON
The night at the Lockwood estate was thick with the scent of jasmine and the unspoken weight of a hundred years. I stood on the balcony, the music from the ballroom fading into a haunting hum, and for a moment, the world felt still.
Then, the air changed.
Silas stepped out of the shadows, his presence a cooling balm to the fever of the evening. When he looked at me, it wasn’t just my face he saw—it was my soul, the broken parts I had tried so hard to hide. He reached out, his hand hovering near mine, hesitant, as if I were a fragile dream he was afraid to wake from.
"You look like a memory," he whispered, his emerald eyes bright with a sorrow that mirrored my own. "But you feel like the future. I’ve spent a century in the dark, Lyra, just waiting for a light I didn't believe existed until I saw you."
His touch was a soft frost, a promise of protection, a love that wanted to mend the cracks in my heart. For a heartbeat, I believed in miracles. I believed I could be more than the girl who survived the bridge.
But then, a shadow cut through the moonlight.
Jax was leaning against the stone railing, a glass of amber liquid in his hand and a smirk that felt like a blade. He didn't look at me with reverence; he looked at me with a hunger that made my blood sing in terror and desire. He stepped into my space, displacing the peace Silas had brought, smelling of woodsmoke and a dangerous, beautiful ruin.
"Don't listen to him, little bird," Jax drawled, his blue eyes raking over me with a lethal intensity. "He wants to worship you in a cathedral of lies. I want to show you the truth. My brother loves the saint he thinks you are. I love the chaos I know is hidden beneath that pretty skin."
He leaned down, his breath warm against my ear, a stark contrast to Silas’s chill. "He’ll catch your fall, Lyra. But I’m the one who will teach you how to fly in the dark."
I stood between them—the moon and the storm. One offered a sanctuary built on secrets; the other offered a throne built on blood. And as I looked from the emerald gaze of the man who wanted to save me to the icy stare of the man who wanted to claim me, I realized the terrifying truth.
I didn't just look like the woman who destroyed them. I was the spark that would finally set their world on fire.
In the shadow of Mystic Ridge, the hunt for a heart has begun. One love will crown her. The other will bleed her dry.
