جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

The castle had gone silent. Below, Kaine thrashed once more against the reinforced trapdoor of the makeshift cellar, before another surge of Riven’s energy reminded him resistance was useless. Upstairs, the others drifted to their rooms, heavy with everything left unspoken. But Mae wasn’t alone. Ashar lay on one side of her bed, sitting upright, back against the carved headboard. Riven stretched out on the other side, one arm resting behind his head, eyes open even in the dark. Neither said a word. Neither slept. Mae curled between them, breathing soft but uneven. When her eyes fluttered closed, her mind opened. It didn’t begin with Kaine. It began with fire. Mae stood in a place that looked like the castle, but warped, half-melted, dripping with shadows and light. Screaming echoed in the distance. She ran. Each room she passed twisted more than the last, memories carved into the walls, faces she knew but couldn’t place. Ashar, crumbling into ash before her eyes. Riven, impaled and sm

Weeks passed like storm winds, fast, loud, and full of change. The once-untouched fields surrounding Ashar’s rebuilt sanctuary now bore the marks of battles fought in preparation. Craters scorched the earth. Ancient stone monoliths Mae had conjured from fractured memory stood like training dummies, each of them broken, shattered, or melted down from her refining strength. Mae stood in the center of the stone circle now, chest rising steadily, shoulders squared. Her arms glowed faintly, not with heat, but power. The kind that no longer frightened her. Not like before. “She’s not just strong,” Sethis said from the outer edge, “she’s, divine.” Lucien hummed, crossing his arms. “And still not even at her full potential.” The sphere hovered silently nearby, its shifting light steady for the first time in days. A soft hum escaped it, its version of satisfaction. Riven, leaning against a stone column, nodded toward it. “She’s close. That damn thing says she’s almost there. One final push and

Riven’s voice echoed down the corridor. He turned the corner at full speed, eyes wide with panic. Ashar was right behind him, faster but quieter, his expression a deep, cold fury barely held back. When Mae saw them, her knees buckled. The fear had finally caught her, swallowed her whole. She didn’t cry. She didn’t scream. She just said: “He’s awake.” Riven caught her just before she hit the floor. “Who?” he demanded, gently lowering her down. “Who’s awake?” Ashar stopped beside them, but his gaze wasn’t on Mae, it was down the hallway, past her room, toward the faintly flickering corridor where something had begun to, form. The walls were breathing. The stones pulsed, veins of black-light webbing through them. The air warped as if the world around them were struggling to hold shape. “The Other. The Unbeing. The End that was promised.” The words didn’t come from Mae. They came from everywhere, echoing like thunder trapped behind glass. Ashar stepped forward, his jaw tight. “This isn’t

After Sethis shared his findings, the others left the chamber quietly, giving Mae the space she needed. But Ashar and Riven remained. No words had passed between them since the scan. There was too much to say, and not enough clarity to form it. Mae sat up slowly, still pale but stronger now. The glow of her children, her energy-born twins, still buzzed faintly beneath her skin. She looked at Ashar, then Riven. Her mates. Her future. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she admitted, voice trembling but real. “I didn’t even know I wanted this. Now they’re here. And I feel like I’ll break if I lose either of you.” “You won’t,” Riven said, sitting beside her and brushing a piece of hair from her cheek. “We won’t let that happen.” Ashar took a seat across from her, his arms resting on his knees. He looked at her the way only he could, quiet intensity hiding oceans of feeling. “They’re alive because of you, Mae. They’re here because you chose to feel instead of destroy.” “You both helped me ch

Lucien stepped from out of the shadows, his figure emerging silently, like something born of the darkness itself. The room was still dark, the soft, steady breathing of Ashar and Riven filling the air, their forms sprawled across the bed. Mae, nestled between them, remained unaware, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, untouched by the disturbance that was now growing in intensity. Not for long. The sound, a scraping, low and unnatural, brought a shiver down his spine. It was a noise that didn’t belong, an ancient echo from deep within the earth. The very walls of the room seemed to hum with it, vibrating with a force that was far too old to be ignored.Lucien took another step, his body moving in a fluid, controlled motion, despite the tightness that gripped his chest. The pulse of the earth beneath him trembled in his veins. This was no simple quake, no fleeting disturbance. This was something far worse. He had heard this before. In fragments of whispers. In dreams that f