The Bride Returns

A single heartbeat passed.

Then another.

The silence in the war council chamber was no longer one of strategy or deliberation. It was the silence of absolute surrender.

Lyria could hear it—the unspoken acceptance, the helpless realization that no amount of weapons or war tactics could stand against what she had become. Against what now knelt before her.

She turned slightly, feeling the heat of his gaze against her skin. The monster at her side did not need to touch her for her to feel him—his presence had long since become an extension of her own, their fates woven so tightly together that she no longer knew where she ended and he began.

And he was enjoying this.

She could feel it in the slow, deliberate way he breathed, in the flicker of amusement curling at the edges of his lips. He was waiting—watching.

Waiting for her to decide.

Because this, this was her moment.

Not his.

He had never forced her hand, never dictated the path she was meant to take. He had simply waited. And now, standing before the remnants of the human stronghold, with the abyss bowing at her feet, Lyria finally understood why.

This was always meant to be her choice.

Her claim.

Her kingdom.

A sharp inhale from one of the commanders broke the moment. The older man with the scarred face—General Raines—had not lowered his weapon, but the way he gripped it betrayed him. Not as a warrior, not as a leader, but as a man who had just realized he was already dead.

His lips parted. "You—"

Lyria lifted a single finger.

The abyss responded instantly.

A ripple of darkness shot from her feet, tendrils of shadow lashing forward in an instant, twisting through the air like living things. Before any of the humans could react, the shadows curled around their weapons, the steel and iron groaning as they were wrenched from shaking hands.

The rifles clattered to the ground, and the darkness swallowed them whole.

Lyria dropped her hand.

The message was clear.

She had allowed them to keep their lives.

For now.

A slow exhale shuddered through the chamber.

Then, movement.

The golden-eyed monster beside her shifted, finally breaking the tension as he took a lazy step forward, the dim lights catching on the sharp angles of his inhumanly beautiful face.

"You seem disappointed, General." His voice was a purr, dark amusement laced between each syllable. "Did you think she'd hesitate?"

Raines flinched but did not back down.

Lyria tilted her head, watching as the man's fingers twitched toward his waist—toward the small blade still strapped to his belt.

A knife.

She nearly laughed.

What was it about humans that made them so predictable? Even in the face of their own insignificance, they clung to their arrogance like armor.

But Lyria was not cruel.

Not yet.

Instead of striking him down, she sighed, stepping forward until she stood directly before him. She was smaller than him, but in that moment, she loomed over him in a way that had nothing to do with height.

"Lower it." Her voice was calm.

Raines did not obey.

Her lips curled, the hint of a smirk playing at the edges. "Lower it, General."

And then, as if unseen strings had snapped, his body reacted without his permission.

His hand trembled violently before his fingers fell away from the hilt, leaving the blade untouched.

Lyria held his gaze, watching the sweat bead at his temple, the sheer willpower it took for him to resist the full force of her influence.

But resistance was meaningless.

Because she could feel it now—the abyss had fused with her entirely, laced within the marrow of her bones, humming with something so natural that it no longer felt like a power she wielded.

It was simply her.

And the humans before her?

They were fragile things, insignificant creatures that still clung to their illusions of control.

The monster at her side let out a pleased sound.

"They can feel it now," he mused, stepping closer, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "They can see what you are."

Lyria's lashes lowered.

Yes. They could.

The humans in the chamber had begun to shift, their expressions flickering between terror and something far more primal—instinctual.

Some of them would break. Would fall to their knees, just as the abyss had. Would realize that fighting her was no longer an option.

The others?

They would fight to the last breath.

Lyria sighed, turning her gaze back to the open doors where the kneeling creatures still waited in patient silence.

She had no use for stubborn men clinging to their graves.

Her patience had its limits.

The silence stretched.

And then, without looking back, Lyria lifted her hand—just the barest motion, a subtle shift of her fingers.

The abyss obeyed.

The creatures at the gates rose in perfect unison.

A single command, spoken without words.

A decision had been made.

Lyria turned, her golden gaze sweeping over the remaining humans one last time. "You will kneel," she said, the words as absolute as death itself.

"And if we don't?" General Raines asked, his voice low.

Lyria's smile was slow.

"You die."

For a moment, there was only silence.

And then, the first human fell to his knees.

A soldier, one of the younger ones—barely past twenty, his hands shaking, his head bowed so low it touched the steel floor. Then another.

And another.

One by one, they fell.

Until only General Raines remained standing.

Lyria watched him, waiting.

His jaw clenched, the last remnants of defiance flickering in his eyes.

But it was useless.

The moment he closed his eyes, the moment his shoulders sagged with the weight of inevitability—

He, too, dropped to his knees.

The war was over.

A pleased hum vibrated beside her.

The monster—her monster—exhaled slowly, his presence curling around her like a shadow. "Magnificent," he murmured, his voice dark with something more than just satisfaction.

Something deeper.

Something possessive.

Lyria turned to him, their gazes locking.

And in that moment, with the abyss at her feet and the last human stronghold kneeling before her, she knew.

This was not the end.

This was only the beginning.

—To Be Continued...