Chapter 7 - The Altar of the Hollow Moon
The interior of the stone tower was freezing, thick with the pungent aroma of burning nightshade and dried serpent scales. Torches flickered with sickly green flames along the curved walls. Amber stood trapped within her glowing crimson circle, tears streaming down her glowing cheeks as her father stepped through the heavy oak archway.
"Daddy..." she whimpered, her small fists clenched tightly at her sides. The golden light radiating from her skin was growing brighter, pulsing uncontrollably with every beat of her frightened heart.
Kael did not look at Seraphine. His golden eyes remained fixed entirely on his daughter. He took a slow, measured step forward, ignoring the half-dozen masked cultists who stepped out from the shadows with drawn daggers.
"You have what you wanted," Kael said, his voice level and dangerously calm. "Release her. Now."
Seraphine stepped down from the dais, her white eyes gleaming with fanatical glee. She held a long, obsidian ceremonial dagger carved from a single piece of volcanic glass, its edge etched with silver runes designed to sever magical and spiritual bonds.
"Oh, we will release her, Your Majesty," Seraphine purred, walking in a slow circle around the king. "Once the transfer is complete. Once the primal spark of the First Dragon resting within her bloodline is safely harvested... and your immortal soul is bound to our altar to fuel the rebirth of the Hollow Moon."
Kael didn't flinch. He knelt down onto one knee, placing his bare hands flat against the cold stone floor, exposing the vulnerable nape of his neck. It was the universal posture of total surrender—something no living creature had ever witnessed the Dragon King perform in ten thousand years.
"Do it," Kael commanded quietly. "Just make sure she is untouched."
Seraphine smiled triumphantly, raising the obsidian dagger high above her head. The runes along the blade flared with a blinding, necrotic purple light. She stepped toward Kael, positioning the tip directly over the center of his upper back, where the golden aura of his dragon soul pulsed beneath his skin.
"Let the ancient covenant be fulfilled," Seraphine chanted in a raspy, ancient tongue, her voice vibrating through the stone chamber.
Amber screamed, pressing her hands against the magical barrier. "NO! STOP IT!"
As the dagger plunged downward toward Kael’s flesh, something impossible happened.
The golden necklace that Seraphine had left resting on the nearby stone altar suddenly shattered into a million glittering pieces. A shockwave of pure, blinding white-hot energy erupted from Amber’s tiny body, instantly vaporizing the magical circle that held her captive.
The stone floor exploded upward. The cultists were thrown violently against the walls, their daggers clattering uselessly to the floor. And Seraphine froze mid-strike, her obsidian dagger halting an inch from Kael’s skin, held suspended in mid-air by an invisible, crushing wall of pressure.
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Kael slowly raised his head, a faint, knowing smile touching his lips.
Because he hadn't surrendered out of weakness. He had surrendered to get close enough to break the ward from the inside. And more importantly... he knew what happened when the First Dragon's bloodline was truly pushed to anger.
