Chapter 3 - Whispering Shadows
Above ground, the celebration in the grand banquet hall was hollow. Courtiers toasted with golden chalices, but no one smiled. The sky outside had turned a bruised, sickly purple, and thunder rumbled constantly across the Atlantic horizon.
King Adrian sat upon the high throne, his head resting against his hand. The heavy golden crown felt unnaturally heavy on his brow. It felt ice-cold against his skin, yet a searing pain shot through his temples every time he tried to think clearly.
Victoria stood beside him, pouring dark wine into his glass. "You did well today, my love. The council is aligned. The family assets are secure."
"She looked at me as if I were a stranger, Victoria," Adrian muttered, his eyes bloodshot. "My own mother."
"She is old, Adrian. Her power was becoming volatile," Victoria whispered, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You saved us. You saved the dynasty."
"Then why do I feel like I am dying?" Adrian demanded, slamming his fist onto the armrest.
Around his wrist, dark purple veins throbbed beneath his skin—identical to the corruption spreading across Torren's chest.
In the corner of the grand hall, hidden behind a velvet curtain, Julian watched his brother. Julian, the youngest, had always been the quietest of the three brothers. But he possessed his mother's sharp eye. He noticed how Victoria never drank from the same pitcher as Adrian. He noticed how her reflection in the glass windows seemed distorted, stretched, and terrifyingly dark.
Julian slipped away from the party and made his way toward the palace archives. He needed answers.
Searching through ancient codices bound in leviathan hide, Julian finally found the forbidden history of House Veyne. He flipped through pages written in his mother's own elegant hand thousands of years ago.
His eyes stopped on a dark illustration: a terrifying entity adorned with a crown of black spikes, looming over three kneeling figures. Beneath the image, his mother had written a warning in golden ink:
> "Should the bloodline ever trade love for absolute power, the Shadow Sovereign shall claim the throne, feeding upon the three flames until nothing remains but hollow husks."
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Julian dropped the book, his heart hammering against his ribs. The pain in his chest flared violently. He ripped open his collar to see his own crest turning black.
"We didn't overthrow a queen," Julian whispered to the empty room. "We summoned a god of death."
