Chapter 31 — Living Chains, Buried Wings

Not his hand.

Not his choice.

That almost made it worse.

I was still kneeling beside Seris when Cassian screamed.

His whole body jerked backward.

Silver light burst beneath his skin, brighter than ever. The Crown mark over his chest opened like an eye.

I looked up.

"Cassian?"

He grabbed at his shirt.

"No."

The mark widened.

Gold lines spread across his ribs, his throat, his wings.

"No, no, no—"

The ground beneath him lit.

A circle appeared.

Old.

Ancient.

Older than the House of Still Waters.

Older than the Council chambers.

Older than the cities that claimed my future.

I knew the shape anyway.

Containment.

Cassian did too.

His face went white.

"Zyrion, MOVE!"

I didn't.

Seris was still in my arms.

Her head rested against my chest.

My shadowed wing stayed curled around her, blocking anything that might touch her.

As if that mattered now.

The first chain erupted from Cassian's chest.

It crossed the observatory in an instant.

I raised Epitaph.

Too slow.

The chain punched through my shoulder.

I looked down.

Black-red blood spread across my coat.

No scream.

Nothing.

Cassian stared at me.

"Zyrion..."

Another chain came.

This one pierced my side.

A third wrapped around my throat.

A fourth tore through one wing.

Pain should've mattered.

It didn't.

I had already felt worse.

Seris was dead.

What exactly was a chain supposed to threaten me with?

Outside, the surviving Council soldiers returned.

Not many.

Enough.

They gathered beyond the ruined walls while white-robed ritualists moved between them.

And at their centre stood Ortheon.

Alive.

Of course he was.

Some people survive consequences meant for everyone else.

Cassian saw him.

"You said it was over!"

Ortheon raised one hand.

The mark inside Cassian flared.

Cassian screamed again.

I felt the chains tighten.

"Stop!" he shouted. "I'm not authorising this!"

"You already did," Ortheon answered.

His voice carried across the ruins.

Calm.

Still.

I hated that more than shouting.

"The emergency covenant remains valid."

Cassian fell to one knee.

"I revoked it."

"A bonded anchor cannot revoke itself during an active threat."

"I'M NOT YOUR ANCHOR!"

The light inside him brightened.

Ortheon looked at me.

Not Cassian.

Me.

"You see what you've become."

I laughed.

It hurt.

"Still talking?"

"You slaughtered Council soldiers."

"They attacked me."

"You killed your own allies."

"They hunted me."

"You destroyed neutral ground."

"You chained me."

"You became a demon."

That one made me smile.

"According to you."

"According to everyone who saw you."

I looked at the soldiers behind him.

Some wouldn't meet my eyes.

Others stared openly at my wings.

Fear.

Disgust.

Hatred.

Once, I'd cared what strangers saw in me.

Now I only cared about one person.

I looked down at Seris.

A strand of pale-gold hair rested across her cheek.

I brushed it away.

"Zyrion."

Cassian's voice.

Weak.

Terrified.

"You need to run."

I glanced at the chains buried inside me.

"Great advice."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

Epitaph's crimson sigils lit.

I cut the chain through my shoulder.

It snapped.

Another formed instantly.

Then two more.

The First Crown had learned.

Every severed chain became another.

I stood anyway.

Seris remained in one arm.

Cassian saw.

His expression broke.

"Put her down."

The entire world went quiet.

"What?"

"You're too weak carrying her."

I stared at him.

He realised his mistake.

"That's not what I—"

"Don't tell me to put her down."

"Zyrion, please."

"Stop saying that word."

Another chain struck.

Straight through my stomach.

My body jerked.

Blood hit the floor.

Still no scream.

I grabbed the chain and pulled myself forward along it.

One step.

Then another.

The ritualists panicked.

Ortheon didn't.

"Increase suppression."

The chains changed.

Light became weight.

My shadow wings faltered.

One collapsed.

The other stayed around Seris.

Always that one.

Always her.

I dropped to one knee.

Epitaph hit the ground.

Cassian tried crawling toward me.

The Crown mark yanked him backward.

"Stop using him!" I shouted.

Ortheon finally looked at Cassian.

"He chose this."

Cassian stared at him.

"No."

"He signed willingly."

"I signed a restraint."

"You signed responsibility."

"I signed because I thought he'd die!"

"And now your concern may save what remains of civilisation."

Cassian laughed.

It sounded broken.

"You really can make anything sound noble."

"I don't require your agreement."

"No."

Cassian looked at me.

"Apparently you never did."

Another ritual circle appeared beneath me.

Sealstone rose from the shattered floor.

Black-grey rock.

Magic-suppressing stone.

I recognised it from old prisons.

When it touched my boot, every crimson line beneath my skin flickered.

"No."

For the first time, fear reached me.

Not because of the stone.

Because I understood.

They weren't killing me.

They were taking me away.

I looked at Seris.

"No."

Sealstone climbed around my legs.

I pulled against the chains.

The rock drank my magic.

Epitaph's sigils dimmed.

My wings thrashed.

The ruins shook.

"NO!"

There.

The first scream.

Not from pain.

Not yet.

Cassian forced himself upright.

"Zyrion!"

"Get her!"

"What?"

"SERIS!"

He looked at her body.

Then back at me.

"Take her!"

Cassian moved.

Toward her.

My mind broke the movement into something else.

Cassian's hands covered in her blood.

Cassian standing above her.

Cassian lying to me.

Cassian beside Ortheon.

Cassian taking her away.

Again.

"No."

Cassian froze.

"Zyrion?"

"Don't touch her."

"I'm trying to—"

"DON'T TOUCH HER!"

My wings exploded outward.

The right one shattered three chains.

The left stayed wrapped around Seris.

Ortheon shouted something.

More sealstone erupted.

It caught my waist.

My ribs.

My right wing.

The stone swallowed shadow and magic together.

I fought harder.

Not to escape.

To keep hold of her.

"Stop!" Cassian shouted.

I tightened my arm around Seris.

The chains pulled.

Her body shifted against me.

"No."

Another pull.

My fingers slipped against her coat.

"No, no, no."

Cassian crawled closer.

"I'll keep her safe!"

"LIAR!"

The word tore through my throat.

Cassian stopped.

Everything in his face died.

The chains pulled again.

Seris slid from my arm.

I grabbed her hand.

Her fingers were cold.

Still familiar.

Still hers.

"Seris."

The sealstone climbed higher.

My shoulder disappeared into it.

Only one arm remained free.

The one holding her.

Of course.

The ritual always knew what to take last.

"Seris."

The chains pulled.

Our hands began to separate.

I screamed.

Not because the stone crushed my bones.

Not because a chain tore through my chest.

Not because my broken halo burned above me.

I screamed because her fingers were slipping through mine.

"NO!"

Cassian reached for her.

I snarled at him like an animal.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

"She'll fall!"

"LET HER GO!"

"Zyrion!"

"YOU'VE TAKEN ENOUGH!"

His hand stopped inches from hers.

That hesitation cost me.

The chains yanked harder.

Seris slipped free.

Her hand fell.

I lunged.

Sealstone locked around my chest.

Something in my shoulder tore.

I didn't care.

"SERIS!"

Cassian caught her before her head struck the floor.

I saw him holding her.

And every rational thought vanished.

"PUT HER DOWN!"

Cassian looked at me.

Tears ran down his face.

"She's gone."

"No."

"Zyrion—"

"She's not yours!"

"I know."

"PUT HER DOWN!"

He slowly lowered her onto the glass.

Careful.

Gentle.

Like I had been.

That made me hate him more.

Ortheon raised his hand again.

The doorway behind me opened.

Not a real door.

A seal passage.

Darkness beyond it.

Ancient stone covered in prayer marks.

The prison.

I knew without being told.

Cassian looked toward Ortheon.

"No."

Ortheon ignored him.

"Containment depth maximum."

"No!"

Cassian tried moving toward me.

The Crown anchor locked his body.

He couldn't take another step.

"Zyrion!"

Sealstone engulfed my other arm.

My shadow wings were crushed against the monolith forming around me.

Their edges smoked wherever the glowing restraints touched them.

The broken pieces of my halo hung above my head.

Crooked.

Still.

Exactly as they'd remain for ages.

The prison passage began dragging me backward.

I didn't look at Ortheon.

Didn't look at the soldiers.

Didn't look at the world that had decided this was justice.

I looked at Seris.

Only Seris.

Cassian knelt beside her.

Alive.

She wasn't.

That difference became everything.

"Cassian."

He looked up.

The sealstone had reached my neck.

"I'm sorry."

His words barely crossed the chamber.

Maybe he said more.

Maybe he begged.

Maybe he promised something.

My consciousness was already fading.

The prison drank what remained of my magic.

The doorway started closing.

Cassian's shape blurred.

Seris became pale-gold hair against red glass.

My sight vanished.

Returned.

Vanished again.

The last clear image I saw was Cassian standing beside her.

Alive.

The man who'd helped build my cage.

Beside the woman my own blade had killed.

The chains pulled me into darkness.

I never saw who closed the door.

I never knew what Cassian did afterward.

For thousands of years, I remembered only one thing.

When the world took Seris from my arms, he was the one left standing beside her.

And I was the one buried alive.