Chapter Thirty-Six – Shadows of the Crown

The wind howled through the ruins like a wounded beast, dragging ash and whispers from every broken crevice. Raina stood at the threshold of the High Temple its spires scorched, its arches weeping light from realms beyond. Her cape whipped behind her like smoke in the wind, and the crown of silver fire burned brighter on her brow. But she didn't feel like a queen.

She felt hunted.

Lucien was at her side, his shirt torn and bloody, his hands crackling faintly with residual energy. His beast stirred under his skin restless, angry, protective.

Behind them, the remnants of their alliance regrouped. Maeva leaned against a crumbled statue, her face pale, her hands pressed to her ribs where she'd taken a cursed arrow. Elias was rallying the remaining soldiers, many of whom were too young or too old, but none of them were willing to flee.

The silence felt wrong. The enemy hadn't retreated.

They were waiting.

"Why did it stop?" Raina asked quietly, scanning the horizon. "This isn't like them."

Lucien's gaze didn't leave her. "Because they're not trying to kill us now. They're trying to separate you."

"The Crown," Maeva murmured. "They don't need to defeat the Huntress army. They only need to bend its flame."

Raina clenched her fists. "Then we burn brighter."

Before anyone could respond, the earth beneath their feet pulsed. The ground didn't shake but something ancient stirred. Not a tremor. A heartbeat.

Lucien stepped closer to her. "It's time."

Raina nodded. "Let's finish what they started."

The remaining troops descended toward the lower halls catacombs hidden beneath the temple, known only to bloodlines of the First Flame. The tunnels smelled of iron and wet stone, and the walls shimmered faintly with residual magic. In the distance, fire flickered.

But the deeper they went, the less real the world felt.

"Something's wrong with time here," Elias whispered, checking the runes on his blade. "It's folding."

Raina felt it too like her thoughts weren't moving forward, like memories were bleeding into the present. Every footstep echoed like a ghost's cry.

And then they entered the Hall of Reclamation.

The chamber was circular, vast, its floor inscribed with runes that moved. At the center stood a throne nothing like the ones in books. This one was alive. Rooted into the ground. Beating faintly with a pulse of flame.

And on it sat…

Herself.

But not her.

The woman looked exactly like Raina down to the last scar on her shoulder but older. Her crown was heavier. Her eyes were solid white fire.

"You came," the woman said without moving. "And you brought the beast."

Lucien snarled softly, stepping forward. "Who are you?"

The figure smiled. "I am the crown she's trying to resist."

Raina's breath hitched. "You're part of me."

"I'm what you become if you lose your way."

The others stepped back instinctively. Even Maeva's voice trembled when she asked, "Is this another test?"

"No," the copy of Raina said. "This is the reckoning."

The walls trembled. The throne split. And suddenly, the true enemy stepped forward not a beast, not a man.

But the woman who had once borne the first Huntress flame.

Aeris.

She wasn't dead. Not really. Not ever. Her essence had simply dissolved, bled into the ancestral flame. And now, like a phoenix from blood, she rose again.

"You killed me," Aeris said, voice echoing off every wall. "But you never buried me."

Raina's hand went to her blade. "You were never truly alive to begin with."

"Neither were you," Aeris hissed. "You think you're whole now? You're a child with fire you don't understand."

Lucien stepped between them. "She understands enough."

Aeris turned to him, her smile like splintered glass. "And you. The beast who chose her. Did you ever wonder why? Why the flame chooses her? Why it always chooses her?"

Lucien stiffened.

"She carries more than Huntress blood," Aeris whispered. "She carries the seed of the old gods."

Raina felt the room tilt. "What are you talking about?"

Aeris pointed to the throne. "Sit, and you'll remember. Sit, and the final truth will unlock."

Raina hesitated.

Lucien grabbed her hand. "It's a trap."

"Or it's the key," she whispered.

She stepped toward the throne, her feet heavy with dread and purpose.

And sat.

Visions exploded.

She was no longer in the Hall. She stood on a battlefield of stars, her body not her own, her flame white-hot and endless. She saw herself leading armies that were not human creatures of shadow and flame. She saw a god tall, crowned in fire kneel before her and whisper, "Our heir."

She saw Aeris... kneeling too. Not in hatred. But in devotion.

You weren't just chosen by the flame. You are its origin. The child of gods who fell in love with mortality.

Raina gasped. Her body convulsed.

And she came back.

Lucien caught her before she fell from the throne.

"She knows," Aeris said. "Now let's see if she survives it."

The chamber shattered. The walls peeled back like layers of memory. They were outside again but not really. The battlefield had shifted to a realm of flame and dream.

Aeris attacked first wielding a blade of lightless flame.

Raina countered, her blade surging with white fire. Their swords clashed, creating shockwaves that cracked the air. Lucien joined seconds later, intercepting a second form of Aeris shadow-born, a flicker from her fractured soul.

Maeva and Elias fought the mirages that erupted from the ground twisted versions of themselves. Mirror-battles.

But the true war was between Raina and Aeris.

"You carry divinity and still act like a child!" Aeris roared.

"I carry love," Raina said, striking her again. "That's something you forgot."

Aeris howled as the blade sliced across her face. But she kept coming. Again and again.

Until...

Lucien threw himself between them as Aeris unleashed a blast of darkfire.

It hit him in the chest.

"No!" Raina screamed.

He dropped his body limp, eyes wide.

Raina's scream shook the realm. Her mark burst open, fire erupting from every pore. She lifted her hand, and the crown on her brow burned blinding white.

"You want the flame?" she shouted. "Then drown in it."

She raised her blade and with one final, brutal cry, she drove it into Aeris's chest.

The woman gasped. Her body exploded into flame and ash.

Silence fell.

Raina dropped to her knees beside Lucien, clutching his body.

"Please," she whispered. "Please don't."

His eyes fluttered.

"Rai…na…"

She pressed her forehead to his. "Don't you dare leave me."

A soft glow emerged from her hand. The crown. It was healing him. Slowly. Painfully. But it was working.

Lucien gasped, breath returning. His eyes met hers. "You… burned the sky."

She kissed him. "Only for you."

Later, when the battlefield returned to its proper form and the last of the shadow realm faded, they stood at the cliff's edge.

The horizon was clear.

The blood moon gone.

Peace?

Not yet.

But the worst was over.

For now.

Lucien slipped his arm around her waist.

"What are we now?" he asked.

She leaned into him. "The beginning of something new."

And in the far distance, the first sunrise in weeks painted the sky gold.