The silence after Velkar's retreat was heavier than war.
It pressed down like smoke after a burning city—thick, choking, impossible to breathe through.
Selene stood amid the ruin, chest heaving, her palms still aglow with dying embers. The memory of the vision clung to her skin like frost: Lyra, crowned in shadow, eyes lit with ruin.
Her sister.
Alive.
And wearing the crown that should never have existed.
Her heart pounded, each beat echoing that name.
Lyra.
The true queen.
The words twisted through her ribs like barbed wire.
The Beast stood beside her, his massive frame outlined by the wavering firelight. Shadows rippled around him as if sensing her turmoil. His jaw was set, golden eyes unreadable.
"We need to move," he said at last, his voice rough as gravel. "Velkar won't give us time to breathe."
But Selene didn't move. Couldn't.
Her fire danced wildly around her, a reflection of the storm inside. "She's alive," she whispered. "Lyra. After all this time… you knew."
The Beast hesitated. His silence told her more than words ever could.
"You knew," she said again, turning on him, fury blazing through her.
"I suspected," he admitted quietly.
Her flames roared higher. "You suspected and said nothing? You let me mourn her—let me believe she was gone while my own blood walked the shadows with our enemy?"
He didn't flinch. "Because I feared what that truth would do to you."
The words struck deep. For a moment, the anger wavered—then hardened again.
Selene's voice trembled, though not with fear. "You had no right."
The Beast took a step closer. "And yet I would do it again, if it meant sparing you the breaking I see in your eyes now."
Her reply never came. The air split with a voice smooth as silk and sharp as broken glass.
"Did you miss me, sister?"
Selene froze.
Smoke shifted ahead of her, coiling like living silk, until a figure stepped forth. Lyra.
Alive. Changed. Beautiful in the way death is beautiful—something that had once been soft, now sharpened into something divine and terrible.
Her hair fell in obsidian waves. Her lips curved in a smile that was both tender and cruel. But her eyes—gods, her eyes—burned red, molten and alive with Velkar's mark.
Selene's breath hitched. "Lyra…"
Her sister's smile widened. "That's all you have to say? No apology? No welcome for the ghost you left behind?"
Selene's fire flared, crackling against the cavern walls. "You allied with Velkar. You chose his darkness."
Lyra laughed—a bright, cutting sound that made Selene's stomach twist. "Chose? You think I chose to be abandoned? You were crowned while I was buried. You were the golden flame—heir, savior, adored by all. And me? I was your shadow. Forgotten. Unwanted."
Her eyes flicked toward the Beast. "Even he couldn't look at me without seeing you."
The Beast's silence was heavy, carved in stone.
Selene's voice shook. "Don't you dare drag him into this."
"Oh, I dare," Lyra said softly, circling them like a viper. "You never saw it, did you? How he kept his distance not from pride—but guilt. Because his heart belonged to you, Selene. Always to you. I was nothing but his reflection, just as I was yours."
A flicker of something pained crossed the Beast's face. Then, in a voice stripped bare of warmth, he said, "I never wanted you, Lyra."
The words cut the air like a blade.
For an instant, Lyra froze. The mask cracked—revealing a flash of the wounded girl she'd once been. But it vanished as quickly as it came. Her mouth curved into a snarl.
"Lies," she hissed. "You think this is still about you? No. This is about her. It's always been about her."
Shadows coiled at her fingertips, writhing like living serpents. "If you love her so dearly, then watch her burn."
"Lyra, don't—"
But her sister was already moving.
Dark tendrils whipped through the air, tearing across the ground. Selene met them with fire, her flames roaring into a wall of light. Sparks collided with smoke, hissing like rain on steel.
They clashed—sister against sister, flame against void.
Every movement mirrored the other, every strike a reflection. Where one stepped, the other countered. They were bound by the same rhythm, two halves of a single storm.
"Stop this!" Selene shouted, her fire flaring with desperation. "He's using you!"
Lyra's laugh rang wild. "And what of you, Selene? The Beast used you too. Or did he never tell you what you really are?"
Selene faltered. "What are you talking about?"
Lyra's grin deepened, cruel and triumphant. "Your bond—your so-called destiny—it's not love. It's a curse. His chains are forged by your flame. He is bound because of you. You think he protects you out of devotion? No, sister. He's a prisoner of your light."
The words hit like a hammer. Selene's fire sputtered for a breath, confusion searing through her chest. She turned to the Beast, searching his face—he looked away.
Her voice broke. "Tell me it isn't true."
But he said nothing.
Lyra's shadows swirled higher, feeding on the moment. "See? He can't. You destroyed me, Selene—and him too. You ruin everything you touch."
Rage flared. Flame surged. Selene lunged forward, unleashing a torrent of fire that split the ground in molten lines. Lyra answered in kind, her darkness rising like a wave.
The impact shook the earth. Cracks opened beneath their feet, molten light spilling upward like veins of blood.
Then—too fast to stop—Lyra shaped the shadows into a blade, black steel dripping with venomous light.
"Do you feel it, sister?" she whispered. "Destiny calling?"
Selene's eyes widened.
The blade plunged deep.
Pain exploded through her body. Her fire shattered into embers as the cursed steel tore through flesh and light alike. The seal within her—the bond that tied her to the Beast—snapped like brittle glass.
Selene fell to her knees, gasping. The air burned with the stench of her own blood.
The Beast roared—a sound of raw, unrestrained fury. Shadows erupted from him, sweeping across the battlefield in a storm. "LYRA!"
But Lyra only smiled, her face lit by ruin. She yanked the blade free, and Selene's blood hissed as it struck the ground.
"I told you," Lyra murmured, crouching near her fallen sister. Her breath brushed Selene's ear like frost. "I'll take everything you ever had—your crown, your power, even him."
Her words burrowed deep, more poisonous than the blade.
And then—Velkar's voice, soft and insidious, slid through Selene's mind.
> "See how he fails you? One strike, and the mighty Beast trembles. I could make you whole again. All you need do… is bow."
The Beast dropped beside her, his hands shaking as he pressed them to her wound. His shadows tried to stem the bleeding, but the curse burned through them, eating his magic alive.
"No," he rasped. "Don't you dare leave me. I'll tear the stars down before I let you go."
Selene's lips parted, a whisper barely carried by breath. "I… won't…"
Her flames flickered—fragile, defiant, still alive.
Then the ground began to quake. Her blood seeped into the soil, igniting ancient runes in crimson fire. The earth split, and above them, the sky tore open in a spiral of lightning and ash.
A crown formed—jagged, burning, alive—and it descended not upon Selene, but upon Lyra.
Her sister rose, radiant in ruin. The crown glowed like a wound above her head, her eyes glimmering with godlight.
"This world will kneel," Lyra declared, her voice echoing like prophecy. "For I am the true queen."
Selene's vision blurred, her strength ebbing as her fire dimmed. The Beast held her close, shadows trembling like a dying heart.
And above them, in the sky's broken mirror, the Crown of Ruin burned.