Page 140 of Savage Crown

I turn to Seraphina.

She’s pale, still recovering, but her eyes are sharp with understanding.

She knows what this means.

"We have to move," she says.

Vael arrives, bloodied. He took care of Lartina’s soldiers.

I look at him, and walk toward him as he crumble to the ground.

“Brother…” I call out. His eyes widen with tears.

“Stay. Take care of your family.”

He holds my hand.

“Take care and come back, brother,” he chokes.

I step away and look at Seraphina. I grip my bloodied blade.

No more running.

No more waiting.

Nhilian thinks he can take everything from me.

He thinks he can claim my father’s power, take the one person left in this world who means something to me.

But he’s wrong.

I will find him.

I will end him.

I will take back what is mine. No matter the consequences.

48

SERAPHINA

The cave looms before us like a gaping wound in the earth.

Dark. Breathing.

It calls to me.

The inked map on my skin burns, thrumming with unseen energy, as if the cave itself recognizes me.

As if it knows why I’ve come.

As if it knows what I was made for.

Rylan moves beside me, his blade stained with Lartina’s blood, his breaths slow and controlled—but I know better. I feel the tension rolling off him in waves, the fury still coiling in his muscles, waiting to be unleashed.

He hasn’t spoken since he killed her. Since she whispered the truth that changed everything. That this was never about gold. That his father’s magic is the real treasure.

I know that knowledge is tearing him apart inside. But there’s no time to unravel it now.

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