AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Karn had been right. Even Mrak, to some degree.
Whatever this test was, whatever this transformation ritual had become, I could not survive being burned by fire. I could wield it. I could tame it and use it to forge weapons against demons with nightsteel.
But my body was human. Breakable. And without Mrak’s magic within me like it had been in Cassius’s manor, without him here to heal my wounds and bring me back from death, I would absolutely, with no uncertainty, die in that forge.
One finger slipped. My grip softened.
I’d been tired for so long now. No test would absolve me of that. No transformation would change the past.
All I could do was forge a new future from the pain that had made me who I was—if I was brave enough to do so.
Emotion welled in my throat. It solidified into one feeling: determination.
I didn’t want to be a victim anymore. Or a killer. Or whatever Lazarus had turned me into.
I wanted to just beme. To be whatever I had decided to be. And I didn’t have to figure that out yet.
Except for one role.
I wanted to be Mrak’s queen. His shadow pact.
I was his. And his love would see me through this.
Resolution turned to love in my heart—for Mrak. For his people. For Willa. For all of our futures.
And it started with a single step. Or, in this case, a single fall.
I let go of the ledge and closed my eyes, letting myself fall into the forge.
My feet hit first, followed my the rest of my body as the forges fires turned shadowed and consumed me whole.
Burning enveloped me. Pain rippled across my body. It felt as though my skin were being burned away and without the constraint of skin and muscle, my organs began rearranging themselves. My very existence felt as though it were shifting, becoming elongated and willowy. Expanding and growing and shrinking all at once at my will. At mycommand. A shape changer. A shadow demon.
Just like Mrak. My love.
My king.
I surrendered to the change. To letting go of my fears. Of my past. Ofmyself.
I accepted the future before me and grabbed hold of it. The fire in my hands burned, but I took it into myself. Transformed the pain in me, the death haunting me, into power. Into a new life.
Mynew life as a shadow demon.
My eyes opened. I was now standing at the top of the tower with the entire Shadow Sanctum beneath me. Below, outside the open door, cheering roared loud and happy and surprised. The audience we’d gathered on the way here, they werecheeringfor me. I lifted a hand to wave them off—as if they could see me—and noticed my entire arm was now shadowy like Mrak’s form, but still human like mine.
The window at the top of the Shadow Sanctum was larger now. Wider. And through it, I saw a whole new Kithonia with these different eyes. Buildings previously invisible to me dotted the red landscape. They seemed to be made from solid shadow and other material unknown to me. Golden trees grew around the buildings, producing dark fruit and flowers. Wisps of civilization and beauty existed here where my once mortal eyes only saw a barren land.
The entirety of Kithonia. TherealKithonia. Home of shadow demons.
Nowmyhome.
Arms wrapped around me. I knew it was Mrak before he even spoke, as a magnetic force seemed to connect us once his hands touched my body. Covering my nakedness. Gathering us up in shadow and floating us down to the ground. Urging me forward toward our people.
I let go, my form rippling until it was shadowy and nearly as large as Mrak’s. I held my head high as the double doors opened to the audience beyond—and Karn, who even looked pleased.
“Your future queen!” Mrak shouted.
And his people—ourpeople—cheered back.
