Rhiannan POV
The portal spit us out right in front of it.
The Temple of Echoes.
Massive. Monolithic. Older than sin and probably twice as judgmental. Its stone doors were already open, like it had been expecting us...like it wanted us. That alone made my skin prickle.
My five mates flanked me without a word. They didn't need instructions. Kaleb at my left, Elisha at my right. Arwen, shadow drenched and silent, behind me. Sable to my far left, tail twitching with tension. Liam... well, Liam winked at me and cracked his knuckles like he was heading into a brothel instead of a death trap. But even he looked nervous.
We stepped inside as one.
The moment my foot crossed the threshold, the fucking doors slammed shut behind us with the finality of a tomb sealing. The echo was deep...wrong. Like the temple itself was inhaling.
Silence fell, thick and suffocating. Not the peaceful kind. No, this was the kind that dripped with divine weight. It pressed against my bones, my magic, my soul. My breath came in slow, shaky waves as I stepped forward.
The air buzzed like lightning waiting to strike.
And there it was.
Hovering in the center of the vast stone chamber, lit by a column of golden light, was the Crown of Reflection.
It was beautiful. Ancient. Worn by time but humming with a kind of power that made the air taste metallic. My goddess mark pulsed like it recognized it. Like it remembered something my mind hadn't caught up to yet.
But this wasn't just a relic.
This was a reckoning.
I barely had time to whisper, "Fuck," before the damn thing pulsed...a blinding wave of light slamming through the chamber like a divine grenade.
I screamed as my knees hit the ground. My mates crumpled around me, gasping, clutching their heads, snarling through the pain...but for me?
It was worse.
The light wasn't just light.
It was memory. Reflection.
My memory.
Everything I'd been shielded from. Everything I had been erased to forget. It cracked open like a dam in my brain and came rushing back, violent and unstoppable.
I saw myself, small and glowing, running barefoot through golden halls. Laughter spilling from my mouth. My hair catching the sunlight like it was spun from the stars. Voices echoed...gods, goddesses, calling me their child. Child of stars. Vessel of the divine. Moonborn. Chosen.
I saw my mother.
Nythera.
Beautiful. Terrifying. Crying.
I reached for her...but then a cloaked figure appeared. And just like that, I was gone. Stolen. Ripped from her arms. My tiny body wrapped in a spell, vanishing into darkness.
The vision twisted.
Turned.
And suddenly, I was in hell.
A basement. Chains. Cold stone.
My magic burning through my veins, stripped raw every time I tried to fight. A man's voice...deep, cruel, filled with power and hate...telling me I was nothing. That I was broken. That I was a mistake. Each time I resisted, I was punished. Mind wipes. Memory spells. Pain.
Years.
Years of being told I wasn't real. That I was dangerous. That my light was a lie.
And then…
I woke up in the modern world of Earth.
Alone. Still a child.
No memory.
No family.
Just a name.
Rhiannan. I ended up in state custody and abusive foster homes.
The scream ripped out of me like a storm, pure and primal, echoing off the stone walls like a wounded god had just been born. Blood dripped from my nose, hot and sticky. My vision blurred. My body shook.
I wasn't breathing. I couldn't.
The memories were too loud.
Too real.
And yet... somehow... I was still me.
Still alive.
Still fighting.
But now? I remembered.
And the world would never be the same.
Kaleb POV
I expected pain.
But not like this.
The Crown didn't just show you your past, it shoved your face in the blood of it. And fuck, mine was soaked.
It wasn't her death that shattered me. My ex fiance. Not really.
It was what I became after.
I watched myself through the haze..cold, unfeeling, a machine wrapped in fur and rage. I saw how I hunted war and power like they were vices strong enough to sedate the ache in my chest. How I let numbness become my god. I fucked women and forgot their names in the same breath, always searching for one thing...something. Anything to make me feel again. To wake me the fuck up.
But nothing did.
Not until her.
The vision shifted, and I saw the exact moment I scented her.
Rhiannan.
Everything stopped. My heart. My beast. My soul.
My wolf, who hadn't made a sound in years...howled.
And I wept.
Right there in the memory. In front of the others. I didn't even try to stop it. Because that moment? It broke me open. Rewired everything I thought I was.
I whispered into the silence, throat raw, chest split wide....
"She was always the reason."
Arwen POV
The moment I stepped too close to that damn Crown, it hit me like a blade to the gut.
I dropped to my knees, breath stolen, heart clawing at my ribs like it wanted out.
And then I saw it.
That fucking memory.
My father's voice...cold, commanding, cruel. "Only one of you leaves this room."
And my twin brother...my other half...looking at me like maybe there was another way.
There wasn't.
Or at least, that's what I told myself when I drove the blade into his heart.
I was barely ten years old. I chose me.
A part of me died that day. The part that believed I was worth a damn. A little more died each day after his death. My father was so proud it sickened me.
Since then? I've worn every charm, every grin, every flirtatious wink like armor. If I was loud enough, fast enough, fun enough... maybe no one would see the rot underneath.
But she did.
Rhiannan.
She looked at me...past the pirate, past the shadow tricks and cocky smirks..and saw me.
And instead of running?
She stayed.
She loved me.
Not in spite of the darkness.
Because of it.
I sobbed like a broken boy in front of that crown, my forehead pressed to the cold stone floor.
And all I could think was...
"She's the only thing I've ever done right."
Elisha POV
The moment I stepped toward the Crown of Reflection, the air changed.
It wasn't fire or fury that hit me, it was silence. Heavy. Suffocating. Honest.
And then... the visions came.
Centuries of calculated rule unfolded before me like a scroll written in ash. My reign, marked not by wisdom..but by fear. I saw the innocents I'd executed for the sake of control. The alliances I shattered, the cities I scorched, the lives I erased because loneliness made me cruel.
I hoarded power like treasure, thinking if I was strong enough, no one would ever abandon me again.
But power doesn't love you back.
I saw it all. The cold thrones. The empty halls. The blood on my claws.
And then... her.
Rhiannan.
That infuriating, radiant, relentless woman who barged into my life like a divine wildfire with no respect for crowns or egos.
She didn't cower.
She didn't flinch.
She called me out, looked me in the eye, peeled back the monster's mask, and didn't run.
Gods, when she did that… my soul exhaled.
"She sees the monster," I whispered into the silence, voice trembling. "And she stays anyway."
And for the first time in centuries… I didn't feel alone.
Liam POV
The second the Crown lit me up, I knew I was screwed.
Visions slammed into me like a freight train of fuckery.
Four hundred years.
Four centuries of watching everyone I loved ripped apart while I survived. Hiding in shadows. Choosing exile over justice. Cowardice over war. Telling myself I was saving what was left of my people...but really? I was running. Always running.
I laughed instead of cried. Drank instead of mourned. Fucked instead of felt.
Behind every snarky quip was a guilt so heavy, it cracked me wide open.
And then I saw her.
Rhiannan. Collapsed on my floor. Bleeding, cursing, breathing like every breath cost her something. And gods help me, I felt something I hadn't let myself feel in centuries.
Hope.
It didn't come gentle. It came clawing. Screaming. Breaking down every wall I'd built like it didn't give a single shit how long I'd kept them up.
And that? That terrified me more than death ever could.
Because hope meant wanting again.
And wanting meant I had something to lose.
Her.
Sable POV
The second that cursed crown lit up, I hit the ground like the fucking world ended.
My knees slammed into the stone and I didn't care. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
It showed me everything.
My mother's death..blood, screams, the way she begged them to spare me.
My father. That bastard. Chaining me in the dark like I was some rabid thing. Training me like a weapon, not a son. Calling me mistake. Monster. Curse.
Years. Years in the dark. No light. No love. Just pain, screams, and the cold weight of metal on my wrists.
Women came later. Some pretended to care. Some just wanted power. Others laughed at me when I fell for their lies. Every time, the lesson carved deeper:
You are only worth what people can use you for.
And then the shadows came. Promised me strength. Promised I'd never feel small again.
And I said yes.
Gods forgive me, I said yes.
But then… her.
Rhiannan.
Eyes like fire. Mouth like a war drum. Heart like a fucking inferno.
She looked at me...and didn't flinch. She didn't see a weapon. Or a curse.
She saw me.
Like I was worth something. Like I was chosen. Like I was hers.
And that shattered me harder than chains or fire or lies ever could.
For the first time since I was a child…
I fucking wept.
Rhiannan POV
The Crown of Reflection blazed the second my fingers touched it.
Pain shot through me like lightning through a copper wire. My whole damn body convulsed, trembling with blood and magic. I screamed, raw, guttural, like my soul was being peeled open with a branding iron.
Power surged.
Too much. Too fast.
The air crackled with divine heat as the crown poured its judgment straight into my veins.
And then… I saw it.
The next relic.
The Sceptre of Power.
My legs buckled. I hit the ground hard, gasping. Kaleb was already there, catching me, cradling me like something precious and dangerous all at once.
"Where is it?" he asked, voice low, barely breathing.
I opened my mouth, and my voice wasn't just mine anymore. It cracked with prophecy, dripping holy rage.
"Guarded by the Undying King," I rasped. "In the Forest of Bones."
Everything went still.
Elisha cursed softly. Arwen's mouth was open like he wanted to argue with fate itself. Liam muttered, "Just once, I'd like a prophecy that ends in a fucking bakery."
Kaleb held me tighter.
Sable didn't speak. Just slid his hand into mine and squeezed, solid, unshakable, demon strong.
And the crown pulsed once more in my palm.
A whisper echoed through the chamber, not from my throat...but from somewhere else:
"Only truth can set the gods free."
My heart was still reeling, lungs burning with divine air, when the chaos decided to say: surprise, bitch.
The ground trembled beneath us.
Not softly. Not gently.
Like something pissed off and uninvited was clawing its way through the floor.
I looked up...just in time to see a literal swarm of demon monkeys launching from the twisted rafters above the temple like screeching, feathered nightmares on meth.
"Oh for fuck's sake," I hissed, stonling my foot on the ground.
Their screams were like banshees being tazed.
Liam rubbed his temple. "Of course. Demon monkeys. Because we haven't had enough trauma today."
Sable roared, wings snapping open, glorious, terrifying, but one monkey latched onto him midair and ripped a chunk out of his wing. His howl of fury shook the walls.
"Bitch took my goddamn wing!" he snarled.
Arwen shrieked. "That thing chipped my claw! I will bathe in its cursed little entrails!"
One of the bastards sucker punched Liam in the face with brass knuckles. BRASS. KNUCKLES. On a monkey.
"I'm gonna kill it," Liam said calmly. "I'm gonna rip its spleen out through its taint."
Kaleb and Elisha were holding their own, until one particularly ballsy little demon yeeted a glob of steaming demon shit right into Elisha's face.
Everything stopped.
Elisha went very still.
Smoke curled from his nostrils. His hands trembled with rage.
Then came the shift.
Golden dragon.
Massive. Glorious. Feral.
The air screamed as he lit the sky on fire. Demon monkeys shrieked in terror, roasting midair, combusting like hairy popcorn kernels.
It was beautiful.
Sable was a whirlwind of shadow claws. Liam broke necks like candy canes. Kaleb fried anything that got near me with crackling lightning. Arwen moved like a fucking wraith, blades singing.
And me?
I threw divine fireballs while cackling like a hot witch on a sugar high.
We were a massacre in motion.
And when it was over?
We stood in a sea of charred monkey guts, smoking fur, bruises, and several fluids we agreed never to identify.
I was catching my breath when a single, small shape waddled out of the wreckage, half scorched, holding a banana like it was the damn Sword of Destiny.
It was a tiny demon monkey.
He had swagger.
And trauma.
He looked me dead in the eye and said in the grittiest little gremlin voice I've ever heard:
"I'm Mo. We're friends now."
We all just… stared.
Covered in blood and regret.
I blinked. "If you throw poop, you die."
He grinned. Climbed up my arm. Sat on my shoulder like he was born there.
Kaleb groaned. "I fucking hate it here."
I smiled.
"We move at dawn."
The Crown of Reflection was ours.
Next stop?
The Forest of Bones.
And whatever unholy bastard called himself the Undying King.
Let's fucking go.