let it take me

I waited until Kael was asleep.

Or pretending to be.

Then I stood.

The bandages tugged at my skin. My hands shook. But the Crown…

The Crown was right where I'd left it.

Wrapped in torn cloth.

Humming beneath it.

Like it knew I was coming.

I knelt.

Unwrapped it.

Thorns gleamed in the dark blackened iron, laced in something old and cruel and alive.

It didn't sing to me.

It ached.

Like a wound.

Like a promise.

"I'm not afraid of you," I whispered.

The Crown pulsed.

My vision blurred.

And then I saw it...

The girl I used to be.

Unbothered. Numb. Nothing.

She stood at the edge of a cliff inside my mind, hollow-eyed and cold.

"Is this what you want?" I whispered. "To make me feel until I burn?"

The Crown throbbed in my hands.

"Yes," it seemed to say. "Burn. Become."

Tears slipped hot down my face.

I hated it.

Hated how easy it was to want power.

To want to matter.

"Then take me," I said. "Do it."

The Crown rose slightly—no wind, no hand, just will.

It hovered inches from my head.

And I didn't flinch.

But before it could descend...

Kael's voice sliced through the air.

"Ariya."

I froze.

He was awake.

Watching.

Eyes wide. Terrified.

"You don't want this," he said, stepping closer. "I've seen what it does. You'll stop being you."

"What if I was never anything to begin with?"

"You were real," he said. "Even when you felt nothing. You were still you."

The Crown quivered.

So did I.

He knelt beside me, slow. His fingers brushed mine.

"I'm scared too," he whispered. "But I'd rather face this world powerless and broken than lose you to that thing."

The Crown hissed.

It wanted me.

But I looked into Kael's eyes.

And for the first time, I felt the Crown hesitate.

Because I chose me.

And I stepped back.