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Chapter 14 - Trial by Fire and Ash

The air in the subterranean vault was thick with toxic green vapors and the smell of burning stone. Beatrice stood over the corroding bedrock pillar, laughing maniacally as the runes cracked and splintered under the acid's bite.

"It’s over!" Beatrice screamed into the darkness, her voice echoing off the damp walls. "You can never wash away what you truly are—a broken omega!"

"You always did overestimate your own cleverness, Beatrice," a cold, resonant voice cut through the toxic fog.

Beatrice spun around. Rowena stood at the entrance of the vault, her golden hair glowing with an intense, blinding radiance that instantly pushed back the green shadows. Her face was a mask of terrifying, majestic calm.

"You should have left me in the snow," Beatrice snarled, drawing a hidden dagger from her cloak and lunging forward with a desperate, suicidal fury.

Rowena didn't even draw her sword. She raised a single hand, and a wave of pure kinetic golden light erupted from her palm.

CRASH.

The impact threw Beatrice backward against the poisoned pillar. The iron dagger flew from her hand, clattering uselessly against the stone. Beatrice slid to the ground, coughing violently as the overwhelming aura of the true sovereign pinned her chest to the floor, crushing the last ounces of her defiance.

Before Rowena could pronounce judgment, the heavy iron entrance doors of the vault burst open. Lord Tristan rushed in, his sword drawn, flanked by a squad of royal guards.

"My Queen! We tracked the seismic disturbance here—are you—" Tristan stopped abruptly, his eyes taking in the corroded pillar and the defeated traitor groaning on the floor.

"The foundation is damaged," Rowena said, her voice steady despite the lingering pain in her chest. "But the source is contained."

Tristan stepped forward, looking down at Beatrice with cold disgust. "She traded her very soul to the Southern Syndicate just for a petty vengeance."

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Rowena looked down at her half-sister—the girl who had mocked her, stolen her betrothal, and tried to burn her kingdom to the ground. There was no anger left in Rowena’s heart, only the heavy, sorrowful pity of a queen looking at a ghost of the past.

"You sought to destroy my bloodline," Rowena said quietly. "Instead, you have only proven why House Sterling had to fall."

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