Convergence of Crowns

# Chapter 104: Convergence of Crowns

Shane awoke to the bitter taste of copper in his mouth and the sensation of cold stone against his cheek. His head throbbed with each pulse of his heart, memories fragmenting and reassembling like shattered ice. The shapeshifter. The attack on Eldoria. Eleanor on the walls, her powers somehow being twisted against her own kingdom.

"The engineer returns to us," came a silken voice from the shadows.

Shane struggled to focus his vision in the dim light. He was in a cell—no, something more elaborate. The walls gleamed with runes that pulsed with suppressive magic, designed specifically to contain those with magical abilities. An unnecessary precaution in his case, but revealing of his captors' misunderstanding.

Princess Denise emerged from the darkness, her laboratory attire replaced by battle leathers that bore the scorch marks of recent combat. Her eyes, usually calculating and cold, now burned with triumphant fervor.