The night slowly gave way to dawn, but for me, there was no light left to find.Smoke curled through the broken city, heavy with the scent of ash and regret. The northern ridge was silent now, only ruins, corpses, and the faint whisper of dying fires. My army had scattered through the valley, their faith shattered like the sky after a storm. And Grace was gone.I felt it, not just her absence, but the hollow ache her leaving carved inside me. She had always been my anchor, my flame in the dark. Now she was a ghost haunting every breath I took.The shadows whispered her name, soft and accusing. Grace. Grace. Grace.I pressed a bloodstained hand to my face, trying to silence them. The voices were my own, echoing through the cracks of my control. “Enough,” I muttered, though the words felt empty. My reflection in a shard of broken steel glared back at me, eyes rimmed with red, skin streaked with soot and guilt.I had betrayed her. Or maybe she had betrayed me. I couldn’t tell anymore. Th

The night bled into smoke and storm. Firelight flickered across broken stone and ruined steel, the air thick with ash and sweat. I stood at the heart of the chaos, chest heaving, the faint shimmer of shadow crawling beneath my skin. My pulse was no longer human. It pounded like a war drum, wild and ancient.Valeria’s voice called through the roar of battle. Luca, don’t!The words came too late.I could feel the beast inside breaking its chains, old hunger clawing through my veins. My eyes, once grey, turned molten silver, glowing with an unholy light that made even the bravest men falter. Around me, the last of Emilio’s soldiers hesitated, not because of my blade, but because of what had awakened inside me.The shadow rose.It was not a figure, not even a form. It was an aura, an ancient darkness slithering around me like a living storm. My silhouette stretched impossibly, devouring light and bending flame. Every step was soundless. Every breath came out like smoke.I wasn’t sure I wa

The air reeked of iron and smoke. I could taste it—blood, burnt steel, and something older, darker, pulsing beneath the ground like a heartbeat buried deep in the ash.The horizon was alive again, trembling with the sound of drums. The second army was coming. Emilio’s banner, the blood sun, fluttered against the wind. Thousands of men. Spears glinting like a field of stars, marching to finish what my brother had started.The world had given me no time to rest, no moment to breathe. Maybe it was justice. Maybe this was what I deserved.The wind carried whispers. My shadows answered them before I did.Kill them all.The voice was not mine. It had become clearer lately, smooth, malevolent, patient. It spoke in rhythm with my pulse.They will die if they step closer, I murmured.My shadow stirred at my feet, stretching across the earth like liquid night, wrapping around broken spears and corpses. It drank everything it touched—light, sound, warmth—leaving only stillness behind.I knew I s

The world was quiet when I woke.Too quiet.The air still smelled of fire and ruin, and when I tried to move, ash slid beneath my palms like sand. My chest ached with every breath. The battle was gone. The screams, the clash of steel, even the voice of the monster. Only silence remained.For a moment I thought I was dead.Then I felt it. A faint rhythm inside me. Not my own heartbeat, but something softer. A second pulse, calm and steady. It moved through the dark like a thread of light, reaching places I could never touch before.Valeria.Her name formed in my mind, and with it came pain sharp enough to tear through the numbness. She was gone. I had seen it happen. I had felt her hand slip from mine. But she had not left completely. A part of her still lived inside me, woven into the shadows she had tried to save me from.I sat up slowly. The world around me was unrecognizable. The ground was cracked open in every direction, the sky still bleeding red from the smoke. My sword lay a few feet

The nights grew longer after the crown found its way to his head.Time had begun to lose meaning inside the citadel. The torches burned slower, the air stayed colder, and the silence pressed heavier on the walls.Luca learned to live with it.Or at least, he tried.He attended the council meetings in a hall that felt too big and too empty. The voices of his advisors blurred together, all speaking of trade routes, alliances, broken towns, and losses too large to count. He listened, nodded, and gave orders when he had to. But his mind stayed elsewhere.Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the ruins where she had fallen. He remembered her hand slipping from his, the light fading, and the sound of her breath. Then nothing.At night, he stopped sleeping.He would wander through the upper corridors when the citadel was dark, moving like a shadow through the same hallways where his father once ruled. The portraits of the old kings watched him from the walls, their eyes hollow, their crowns bright