Page 134 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
She had done it believing it was necessary. Believing it was mercy. Believing it would spare the world from devastation.
Mal would have become dangerous, unstoppable. It had seemed the only choice left to them.
The only way.
But now, as events spiralled beyond even divine foresight,Adriana could not silence the creeping dread that perhaps every careful decision, every calculated betrayal, had not prevented catastrophe but shaped it.
And perhaps, in trying to save the world from Mal, she had merely ensured her own undoing.
The moment Adriana left Keir to his restless sleep and descended the stone steps, she halted.
Cronan stood at the foot of the stairwell. He was the largest wyverian ever to walk these lands. He did not speak; he could not. And almost no one knew which being inhabited that formidable vessel for if they did, their knees would surely buckle beneath them.
He was the god of time.
And Keir’s father.
Not counted among the originals. Not ranked beside them.
He was something older.
Something whispered of.
Adriana paused beside him, unease prickling beneath her skin as she met his unblinking stare. Long ago she had glimpsed his true form—not bound by mortal symmetry, not confined to flesh and bone. Cronan was not shaped like the other gods. He was not shaped for comprehension.
He was something that made even her tremble.
There was tension in the way he held himself, a stillness too deliberate to be calm. She followed the direction of this stare towards the towering black doors of the castle. Slowly, hesitantly, she pushed them open and stepped outside, Cronan’s immense presence trailing after her like an eclipse.
The world beyond appeared unchanged.
The sky hung in its usual ashen gloom above the Kingdom of Darkness. Dead grasses bent beneath a restless wind. The volcanic mountain loomed behind the castle, the fortress carvedinto its jagged spine. In the distance, the Forest of Silent Cries—gateway to the Underworld—brooded in perpetual shadow.
All was as it had always been.
Adriana was about to turn back inside when it struck her.
A sensation.
A presence.
Ancient and uninvited.
Adriana stiffened, turning sharply, her head tilting ever so slightly as she listened.
Her black eyes widened as a figure emerged from the winding path that led from the Forest of Silent Cries. Even though the body was different from the last Adriana had seen, the wickedness was unmistakable. It clung to her like a second skin.
Eris.
She wore a witch’s vessel once more—slimmer this time, plainer. Pale skin dusted with freckles. Long, unruly brown hair whipping about her shoulders in the wind. And those purple eyes, burning with naked hatred.
‘How did you find me?’ Adriana asked, her voice cool despite the tension coiling beneath her ribs.
Eris continued her leisurely march forward, that dreadful, lilting laugh spilling from her lips—a sound that remained unchanged no matter the body she inhabited.
‘It is quite easy to find you,mother,’ she replied sweetly. ‘All I must do is follow the path of betrayal, and there you are, hiding away with my father.’
Adriana exhaled slowly, weariness edging into her features. She had grown tired of Eris’ venom, tired of the theatrics.
