In the Shadow of the Crown

The silence in the dungeon was suffocating.

Eliza’s pulse roared in her ears as she stared at the bloodied ring in Edric’s palm. The dim torchlight caught the red sheen on the metal, making it gleam like a fresh wound.

[Raen…]                                

No. She refused to believe it.

Her fingers clenched around the chains binding her wrists. “If you’ve killed him,” she said, voice steady despite the storm rising inside her, “then you’ve doomed yourself.”

Edric chuckled, low and deliberate. “Oh, Countess. If he were dead, do you think I would bother keeping you alive?”

The words should have reassured her. They didn’t.

She swallowed hard, forcing her mind to focus. “Then why show me this?”

“To see what you’re willing to do to save him.”

Eliza stiffened.

Edric’s gaze sharpened. “Your beloved Duke is very much alive…for now. But how long that lasts depends entirely on you.”

Her blood turned to ice.

[This wasn’t just about Raen. It was about control. About power.]

She could see it now - the careful game Edric had set in motion. Raen’s love for her was his weakness, but her love for Raen? That was Edric’s weapon.

[He wants to break me.]

Tristan had stepped back into the shadows, his expression unreadable, but she could feel his presence like a blade pressed to her spine. He would not help her. Not now.

Eliza lifted her chin. “What do you want?”

Edric’s smile deepened. “Oh, my dear. That’s the right question.”

He leaned down, lowering his voice to something soft, intimate, cruel.

“I want your loyalty.”

Eliza exhaled sharply. “You already have an army. You don’t need me.”

“No, but Raen does.” His fingers brushed a lock of her hair from her face, a mockery of affection. “And if he believes you have betrayed him, what do you think he will do?”

Her stomach twisted.

[He would not stop. He would rage. He would destroy.]

[Edric’s trap was not simply to lure Raen into a fight. It was to turn him into something Eliza would no longer recognize.]

[A man who had nothing left to lose.]

[A monster.]

She forced herself to keep her voice even. “And if I refuse?”

Edric sighed, standing upright once more. “Then Raen dies screaming.”

The words struck her like a dagger to the ribs.

She couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t think.

[This is what power is. Not steel. Not magic. But knowing exactly where to cut.]

Edric turned away as if he had already won. “I will give you time to decide. But not much.”

With a flick of his hand, Tristan moved to follow. He hesitated only for a fraction of a second before stepping after the king.

Eliza watched them disappear down the darkened corridor, their footsteps fading into the distance.

Then she let out a slow, shuddering breath.

[Think, Eliza. Think.]

Her body ached, her wrists throbbed, but none of it mattered.

She had to get out. She had to find Raen before it was too late.

Her fingers tightened into fists.

[If Edric wanted a pawn, he had chosen the wrong woman.]

***@@novelbin@@

The castle walls trembled.

Distantly, above the dungeons, a roar of thunder split the night sky. But Eliza knew better.

That was no storm.

That was him.

The chains around her wrists rattled as she lifted her head. Her heart pounded not with fear, but with something far more dangerous.

[Hope.]

[You’re coming, aren’t you, Raen?]

The air in the cell grew heavy, charged with something unseen, something old. The torches flickered wildly, as if caught in a wind that did not exist.

[Magic.]

Raw, unchained, furious.

The kind that shattered empires.

A smile ghosted over her lips.

[Edric had underestimated them both.]

[Let him think he held all the pieces.]

[Because when Raen arrived, there would be no more games.]

[There would be only blood.]