Chapter 159: The Knife and the Thread
CELESTE'S POV
The blade was in my hand before I realized the Queen had given it to me.
It wasn't steel.
It was thread — three strands braided so tightly it gleamed like glass, humming with a sound that was almost a voice. Not a single voice, but hundreds, maybe thousands, all murmuring at once. The sound wasn't quite in my ears; it was in my bones.
The handle was warm at first touch, then almost scalding. My palm prickled, the skin pulling tight around it, as if the weapon didn't want to be held by mortal flesh.
"One to bind," the Queen said, her voice low and coaxing. "One to banish. One to break."
Her words curled around me like smoke, but the smoke wasn't air — it was memory. My own. The first time I laughed in Kael's arms. The first time Zarian bled for me. The moment Darius stepped between me and a blade meant to end me.
The arena's magic pulsed in time with my heartbeat.
