CHAPTER 32
The first warning of chaos isn’t the shouting—it’s the explosion that damn near throws me across the glass cage.
The floor trembles beneath my feet, rattling the glass surrounding me.
Before me, the rebel on guard lies unconscious on the ground.
The force of the blast must’ve cracked his skull.
Blood leaks from the wound as he lies there, his mouth hanging open.
Another tremor follows, closer now. The ground shakes beneath me until I’m huddled in a corner with my hands clamped over my ears.
I hear screams and the crash of thunder, as if someone is cracking this place in half.
It sounds like a god has come down on Solaris.
I scramble backward as cracks spread through the glass Malveris insisted was impenetrable. Are the gods finally coming to obliterate Solaris? Gods. I didn’t get to see Thorin before we were wiped from existence. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye properly.
A rebel runs into the room, staring into my eyes as he makes the sign of a god I don’t recognize. His face goes pale before he turns and runs. The next thing I know…
The world erupts.
The walls around the cage don’t explode so much as split apart.
Black lightning rips through the foundation, jagged veins of darkness carving across the rock before it gives way with a deafening crack.
Boulders tumble into the chamber as shadows pour through the breach—not drifting or crawling, but surging like a living tide released from centuries of confinement.
The temperature plummets and lanterns extinguish all at once.
Darkness devours everything, and I notice the hum that has always surrounded the cage is gone before bolts of black lightning illuminate the chamber again in violent flashes.
Then…
He steps through.
For one suspended heartbeat, I don’t recognize him.
I see a man dressed in black leathers, twin swords strapped to his back. He looks like a fucking god ready for war.
I see my king.
My mate.
The man who brought this place crashing down to rescue me.
I let out a sigh of relief so profound it breaks into a sob. Tears spill down my face in endless waves. “THORIN!” I scream.
I need him to find me. I need him to get me out of here. Gods… when he said I was his… he meant it.
He’s tearing this place apart to reach me, leaving nothing standing in his wake.
Shadows coil around his boots like living smoke. They move with him, anticipating every step before he takes it. Black veins branch from beneath the collar of his vest, spreading across his throat and climbing the sharp planes of his face until they disappear beneath his hairline. His eyes…
Gods.
There is no silver.
No white.
Nothing but endless black.
He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. And the most terrifying.
This isn’t the patient king who corrected my stance in the training yard. This isn’t the man who knelt beside flowers in the Sacred Gardens.
This is the Shadow King.
The curse made flesh.
Lightning crashes through the cavern ceiling, showering the glass cage with stone. There are no walls anymore. Nothing left but the cage and broken earth. I spin in a slow circle, trying to make sense of where I am, but there is nothing left to recognize. Whatever this place was before…
Thorin erased it.
What had been a massive iron stronghold has been reduced to ruin.
Men charge at Thorin, but his shadows lash through the air, wrapping around the rebel soldiers and hurling them aside as though they weigh nothing at all.
Some manage to draw their weapons before sharp ropes of shadow slice them cleanly in half.
Thorin turns his head toward one man, and he drops to his knees.
Thorin raises a hand, and the man’s neck snaps.
Another turns to run. He never makes it three steps before darkness devours him.
The Shadow Guard pours through the rubble behind their king, fighting anyone who tries to reach him, though it hardly seems necessary.
Thorin is untouchable. No one has a chance of getting close to him.
Gods. What have they unleashed?
Thorin moves through the guards with terrifying precision, his sword and shadows working as one. I have never seen anyone fight like this, and I can’t take my eyes off him. I hope the rebels are afraid. I hope they’re terrified, because they brought this upon themselves the moment they took me.
Thorin cuts through what was once a compound with terrible purpose, every swing of his twin blades ending a fight before it can begin.
Where steel should meet steel, shadows intervene instead, crushing weapons, splintering shields, and swallowing magic before it can reach him.
The rebels aren’t fighting a man. They’re fighting a force of nature.
I see Malveris rush toward him with outstretched hands, crimson power blazing from his palms as he charges straight for Thorin. I scream Thorin’s name because I know he doesn’t see the assault. But I didn’t need to warn him.
He turns before Malveris can reach him, and his expression is pure rage.
He flicks his wrist, and blades of solid shadow tear through the air.
Malveris ducks the first, and the second shatters against a burst of crimson magic.
Thorin’s shadows circle him, attempting to bind his arms, but Malveris slices through them with spinning crimson disks of light.
A third shadow blade slices across his arm, drawing blood before he closes the distance.
They collide, steel crashing against steel.
Malveris fights with the desperation of a man who knows death is waiting if he loses.
Crimson magic explodes from his free hand between strikes, forcing Thorin to break away before answering with shadows that slam into the attack and swallow it whole.
The impact rattles the ground, and I brace myself against the glass.
Malveris spins, hurling another blast of crimson magic toward Thorin's chest. Thorin cuts through it as shadows coil around his sword before he drives it forward.
Malveris narrowly avoids the strike, conjuring a sword from thin air just in time.
Their blades lock for only a heartbeat before Thorin twists free and sends another volley of shadow blades racing toward him.
Malveris dodges them but catches the last blade, which buries itself deep in his shoulder.
He stumbles back, his crimson eyes blackening.
“You can’t defeat us, Shadow King. And you won’t be able to hide them from us for much longer.”
I shake my head, knowing he’s referencing the settlement. Terror seizes my chest as I watch the two, but Thorin doesn't hesitate. Every movement is precise, every strike calculated, and rage doesn’t make him reckless.
It makes him faster.
His shadows snap toward Malveris like starving wolves, forcing him backward across the rubble.
Crimson light crashes into living darkness again and again, but Thorin keeps advancing, giving him no room to breathe.
I see a flicker of fear flash across Malveris's face, replaced by an anger so palpable I can almost touch it. He throws one hand toward the sky and screams words I don’t understand.
The shadows at his feet writhe as Thorin lunges—but Malveris slips from his grasp by an inch. Crimson light erupts around Malveris, swallowing him whole as Thorin's shadows crash into empty air. The light slowly fades and Thorin whirls, narrowing his black eyes as he searches the compound.
But Malveris is gone.
When Thorin turns, bodies scatter from his path, not because he commands them to move but because instinct tells them death is coming. His expression never changes. There is no rage on his face now. Only absolute certainty.
Then…
He sees me, and everything stops.
The lightning stills, and his shadows hesitate.
Across the cavern, those endless black eyes lock onto mine, and I watch him inhale sharply, as though remembering how to breathe.
The darkness recedes from his face by inches.
The veins remain, but the shadows circling his feet grow still, settling against the stone like obedient wolves returning to their master’s side.
Around us, the battle continues.
Neither of us notices.
He crosses the distance between us without taking his eyes off mine, stepping over broken stone and fallen weapons as though nothing else in this world exists.
When he reaches me, his sword slips from his hand and strikes the ground with a dull clang.
He places a hand against the glass cage, and the black returns, racing across his skin.
Throwing his head back, he unleashes a roar so primal it shakes the earth beneath my feet.
The world answers.
A deafening crack splits the air as the cage explodes. Glass erupts in every direction, shattering into a million glittering fragments, but not a single shard reaches me. His shadows sweep around me, catching every piece before it can touch my skin.
“Lyra.”
I’ve heard my name spoken a hundred different ways, but never like this.
He’s in front of me in a heartbeat, cupping my cheeks gently, running his hands through my hair. I can’t stop sobbing, saying his name over and over as if it’s a prayer. Thorin’s here. He found me. Thorin came for me.
“Are you hurt?”
I shake my head before pulling his face to mine, crushing him with a kiss that feels centuries overdue. He rests his forehead against mine, his breathing ragged as thunder and lightning continue to darken the sky. The sky is completely black—it’s as if he commands the night itself.
The breath leaves him in a ragged exhale, as though he’d been holding it from the moment I disappeared.
“Thank the gods, Lyra.”
I almost laugh. After everything I’ve witnessed…
I don't think even the gods could have stopped him from finding me.
“Thorin, take me home.”
His gaze meets mine, and he nods, knowing exactly where home is.
He’s taking me to Andell.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I know,” he says, and that stupid smirk crosses his face.
I laugh because, gods, I do love him, and I’m glad he knows it, because he unleashed one of the seven hells to get me out of this place.