Page 94 of The Crown's Awakening
The impact rolled through the corridor. The doors gave way. The panels swung inward with a violent crash that spread through the vast chamber beyond and silenced every voice inside it.
Colsar staggered across the threshold.
Sunlight flooded the vast chamber, pouring through towering windows until the marble floor gleamed like pale water. Courtiers stood frozen throughout the hall, their attention snapping toward the blood-covered stranger who had just forced his way into their court.
Colsar saw none of them.
At the far end of the chamber Asharin rose from the throne.
White and gold silk moved around her as she descended the steps, sunlight catching in the bright fall of her golden hair. Fine chains threaded with rubies traced across her face, the delicate chains resting against her skin as she moved.
Colsar stared. For months, her face had been the only thing that kept him moving.
She stared back, her eyes glistening.
Seeing her like this made something in him falter.Beautiful.The word left him in a breath he barely heard.
The guards rushed in behind him.
Hands seized his shoulders again as alarm rippled through the chamber.
“He’s been bitten.”
“Your Majesty, you must keep your distance.”
Colsar resisted them with the last stubborn strength left in his body, forcing the words through his throat before they could drag him away.
“I need… the princess.”
Asharin had stopped halfway across the hall. The distance between them felt too far. In that pause a single thought moved through Colsar’s mind.
What if she no longer wanted him?
The journey had taken months. The endless fields of undead had kept him from her far longer than he ever intended.
If she looked at him now and saw only the man who had failed to return in time?—
The idea tightened painfully inside him.
“I came,” he said.
Asharin’s expression broke.
Light burst outward from her in a brilliant surge. Her magic filled the throne room in a sweeping wave that pushed the gathered court backward. Guards staggered away from the center of the hall while nobles cried out in startled confusion as the invisible force cleared the space around the stranger who had collapsed upon the marble floor.
Colsar felt warmth brush across his skin.
His strength failed completely. The floor rose up beneath him.
Asharin reached him almost immediately. She dropped to her knees beside him with a breath that trembled between relief and disbelief, her gown spreading across the marble as her hands came to his face with desperate tenderness.
“Colsar.”
His name left her lips as though it had lived there for months waiting to be spoken.
He forced his eyes open. His eyes moved slowly over her. The crown. The gold-threaded gown. The light still faintly shimmering in the air around her.
“You look…” His voice barely formed the words. “…like something my mind invented.”
