Page 146 of Savage Crown

I don’t care what it costs.

I turn my head, staring at the ancient altar.

The blood has reached its base.

It soaks into the stone.

The sigils glow brighter, pulsing.

Seraphina gasps softly, her body shuddering in my arms.

I can’t lose her.

I won’t.

And so I make a choice.

A choice that will damn me.

A choice that will change everything.

50

RYLAN

The cave trembles as I stand.

My pulse is rage, raw and untamed. The darkness is making me lose my senses.

Only rage.

The shadows flicker as I lunge—a predator locked onto its kill.

Nhilian turns, his lips curling into something between a sneer and a snarl. He knows he’s lost.

Still, the bastard raises his blade, stance sharp, desperate.

"You don’t—" he begins, but he never finishes.

I’m already on him.

My dagger sinks into his gut.

The sickening, wet crunch of steel through flesh echoes in the cavern.

I twist.

He chokes, gurgles, body seizing.

But I’m not done.

I rip the dagger free and slam him back against the ancient altar.

His blood splatters across the stone.

A fitting place for him to die—at the feet of something greater, something far beyond him.

Nhilian wheezes, his hands clawing at my arms.

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