Chapter Twenty-Six Crown of Ash #3
But her mind moved quickly now. The pieces clicking into place. The sphinx wouldn't have needed to see everything—just enough. Enough to position guards. Enough to manipulate timing. Enough to trap them like insects in a glass jar.
The music shifted, louder, fuller. The orchestra picked up into something glittering and grand, a cruel contrast to the simmering violence below the surface.
She had no choice but to pivoted in Darius's arms, locking her gaze on the golden staircase that led up toward the upper levels—where dignitaries, and likely the king, waited.
Her eyes caught a familiar gleam near the upper banister.
A shadow.
Nox.
He hadn't vanished. He'd moved higher. Relief slid down her spine like cool rain—but only for a moment. As Darius dipped her into the next motion of the dance, her eyes landed on a second shadow behind him.
Darius held her there, whispering into her neck. "Do anything and he dies." Her body tensed—every instinct screaming, but her expression didn't falter. She might be at his mercy, but she would never let him see her fear--even if he knew he had won.
He pulled her out of the dip, and she lost sight of Nox and the shadow that stood behind him. He moved them, his hand like iron around her wrist.
"Lords and Ladies," Darius called, his voice cutting cleanly across the music and chatter, "Tonight we celebrate not just the day of my birth, but the enduring might of our empire." He stalked towards the dais with Adan in tow.
The ballroom applauded politely, with genuine reverence.
Adan's jaw clenched. She had bled for that so-called might. Killed for it--been broken and reforged beneath its banner. And now she stood here, in silks and jewels, being dragged again before the court.
Darius continued, snatching a flute off a nearby serving tray and raised his glass. Turning to face his retinue, his grip on Adan tightening painfully. "Let us drink to the crown. To loyalty. To peace, hard-earned and well-guarded."
Peace? The word echoed bitterly inside her.
"And let us never forget," he added with a razor's edge of cruelty in his smile, his dark eyes sliding knowingly towards Adan. "those who protect our way of life. Even the monsters we chain for our cause."
There were chuckles—knowing, cruel chuckles.
Adan's smile didn't falter. But gods, it took everything she had not to launch herself at him, to burn this place to the ground.
She should-- the smart thing would be to incinerate this whole castle and everyone in it, but that would include Nox.
Even if she had made that promise to him -- she couldn't do it.
Darius leaned close, lips brushing her ear like a lover, speaking only for her now. "Imagine my delight when I learned exactly what it took to make you kneel." Her blood roared. The fury was instant, volcanic—but it burned cold.
A flicker—an echo of that familiar, suffocating power.
Darius literally stole the air from Adan's lungs with his wind.
She clawed at her neck, at his invisible hands at her neck.
The tiniest nudge in the ditch of her knee, had her falling to the marble floor with a crack.
Gasping as her breath returned, Darius's hand already gripping the back of her neck in a fierce pinch.
Gasps rippled through the crowd—but no one stepped forward.
No one dared. They didn't see a woman brought to her knees.
They saw an animal being placed at its master's feet.
Her fingers curled into fists, nails digging into her palms as Darius held her there like a pet at heel.
The fury trembled just beneath her skin, begging to be unleashed.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Darius purred above her, drinking in the attention like the champagne in his glass, "a demonstration."
Adan's blood turned to ice.
The guards parted.
A figure was shoved into the light.
Nox.
Blood on his temple, arms bound behind his back with enchanted iron that shimmered faintly in the chandelier light.
"Lennox Hollow of House Shadow," Darius said, voice ringing out, "Traitor to the crown. Conspirator to the rebellion. Brought low by a woman." He smiled, dark and wicked.
The crowd booed and leered at them like a band of hissing snakes.
Adan locked eyes with Nox, his lip bleeding and his one eyes already blooming black. This wasn't what they had planned at all.
'Get up, Inara.' Low and coarse, Nox's voice filled her head and her eyes widened. Was she losing her mind already? Was the sight of them loosing this war breaking her?
'Inara!' Nox nodded his head unnoticeably to those around them, but not Adan. 'Don't you dare let them unmake you. Not here. Not now. Never. Make them choke on the ashes.'
Nox's voice in her head held no softness. No pleading. Just raw, furious love. A demand, not for survival—but for domination. For her to own the fire inside her and burn down the empire that ever thought it could chain her.
The pressure of Darius's grip suddenly distant beneath the pulse pounding in her skull as she remembered who the hell she was.
A phoenix doesn't beg-- A phoenix rises.
Adan exhaled, slow and deliberate. The next breath, she drew in, tasted like ash and smoke. Her fingers curled against the marble, not in pain, but in preparation.
And when she lifted her head, every candle in the ballroom flickered.