The Shadow of the Forgotten Crown

dark stopped as sudd

man-Liora, she had finally snarled when he refused to move another step without a name-s

ng us," she whisp

toward the dagger at his belt, though he doubted steel would matter

Scarlet King. Or what's left of one." She turned and strode down the tu

tuary of

edded crystals that pulsed like captured stars, casting liquid blue light over ruins older than the city

e?" Kael's v

realized they couldn't kill it." She gestured to the carvings on the walls-fig

ed. "You're saying t

new voice, dry

adow himself. His eyes were milky white, blind but somehow pi

Orren the Sundered. Last living

to something beyond the cavern. "You've

I saw something. A thro

ht of creation itself. The ancients bound it with the Forgotten Crown, but the seal was never meant to last." He tapp

Bloo

her grip like a vice. "You f

this," Kael snar

. "But the crown's power is a

up his sleev

lowing faintly, tracing the paths of his veins

ce hollow. "Either you learn to wield

f silenc

OM

ined from the ceiling as a s

," Orren said

as her magic. "The Cult of the Dying Sky. They

knife. "Let me guess-they wa

the first time. It wasn't comfo

iege

shattered the c

sed sunset, their faces hidden behind masks of gilded bone. At their he

e hissed. "Giv

r blade carving a line of blue

for a side tunnel, Orren at his heels-but as

-Eater whisp

outrun the e

he door, the k

rms flared, and suddenly, he

sh, beneath a sky where

g on the thr

Elements

ing a conduit for the Star-Eater's power,

made from the remains of fallen comets, and their l

is is one of seven anchors holding the Star-Eater's