Chapter 13 - The Ghost of the Past
Seraphina froze mid-stride, her eyes locking onto the figure standing high above the chaos on the snowy ridge. Even across the distance, through the haze of battle and purple smoke, she recognized those sharp, aristocratic facial features and the cold, dead eyes.
Lord Cassian.
The former royal advisor—the man who had supposedly died in a mysterious ship fire off the southern coast five years ago, long before Darius’s poisoning.
Cassian raised a heavy iron staff inscribed with jagged, glowing runes, chanting an ancient incantation that made the ground beneath the canyon tremble. Instantly, a dome of dark, suffocating energy descended over the battlefield, trapping Darius, Seraphina, and their vanguard inside a glowing purple cage.
“Darius!” Seraphina shouted, dodging a swipe from a rogue wolf and running toward the King.
Darius tore through the final beast blocking his path, his silver eyes blazing with fury as he looked up at the ridge and saw Cassian standing there.
“Cassian!” Darius’s voice roared over the din of battle. “You cowardly rat! I watched your ship burn to ash!”
Cassian laughed—a high, grating sound that echoed mockingly off the canyon walls. “A convenient illusion, Your Majesty! While you were busy playing king and dealing with petty domestic disputes, I was securing the true legacy of the old gods!”
Cassian pointed his staff directly at Seraphina.
The purple dome above them instantly tightened, shooting bolts of dark lightning down toward the ground. The magic struck the earth around Seraphina, forming a ring of fire that prevented Darius from reaching her.
“She is the key, Alpha!” Cassian shrieked, his eyes wild with fanatical ambition. “The Moonborn bloodline isn't just a relic of the past! Her blood, mixed with the ancient altar stones of the western pass, can tear open the veil between the mortal realm and the old gods! Step aside, and I might let you rule as my hound!”
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Darius’s wolf roared furiously inside his mind, taking complete control of his physical form. His body grew larger, muscles bulging beneath his heavy armor as the spectral white wolf manifested behind him, its jaws dripping with crackling blue lightning.
“You want her blood?” Darius whispered, his voice a lethal, vibrating purr that silenced even the howling wind. “Come down here and try to take it from my cold, dead hands.”
