The passage stretched ahead, narrow and steep, walls marked with the same crimson runes that had lit the altar chamber. The air grew colder with every step, sharp enough to stings the lungs. It carried a copper tang that clung to Kael's tongue.
Rayne walked at his side, her dagger casting a pale firelight that revealed carvings cut into the stone. A crown split in two, figures kneeling, rivers of blood flowing like chains across the walls. Each image pulsing faintly, alive, keeping rhythm with Kael's pulsing mark across his collarbone.
Kael pressed a hand to his chest, the pain is becoming unbearable and it showed on his face. The scar burned hotter with every step. Through the torn fabric of his tunic a faint glow seep through and Rayne noticed.
Her eyes narrowed as she viewed it. "The mark is spreading."
Kael's jaw tightened. "It reacts to the crown's symbols. That is all."
She shook her head. "No. It reacts to you."
Before he could answer, the tunnel widened into a chamber where a single mirror stood. Tall and cracked, framed in black iron. Dust coated the glass, yet faint crimson light bled from its fractured surface.
Kael froze. His reflection looked back at him, pale and strained, the mark burning across his chest like a brand. But in the mirror's crack he saw more. Crimson eyes staring from a face that was not his, crowned and broken....The Hollow Queen.
Her voice whispered from the glass, low and intimate.
"Blood of my blood. The mark is your crown. You cannot run from it."
Kael staggered back, Veindrinker raised trying to shield himself from what he saw. His pulse hammered in his ears almost blocking out anything else.
Rayne stepped closer, fire sparkling at her fingertips. "What did you see?"
Kael's voice was hoarse. "Not me. Not..... only me."
The mirror's crack spead, light leaking through as though something inside strained to break free. As the cracks in the mirror widened, crimson light spilled into the chamber casting jagged shadows that crawled across the walls like living things.
Kael gripped Veindrinker tighter, every nerve in him burned. His reflection in the mirror split apart, shards showing different versions of him, crowned and kneeling, blood-soaked and victorious, chained and broken. And from each of this fractured image of him came whispers in the Hollow Queen's voice.
"Every heir kneels. Every crown binds. You will not escape."
Kael's mark flared so hot it forced him to go down on one knee. He gasped for air, but the weight pressed harder, pulling him towards the mirror.
Rayne darted forward, catching him before he collapsed entirely. Her dagger glared, her fire pushing back the mirror's glow. "Fight it, Kael. Do not give it what it wants."
He met her eyes for only a heartbeat, and the bond pulled sharp inside him, stronger than before. The ache rose again, sharper than the burn of the mark, but he clenched his jaw and focused on the sword in his grip.
Veindrinker pulsed in tune with his heartbeat, crimson runes blazing. He forced the words through his teeth. "I am not its heir."
The mirror shuddered. One reflection, the crowned version of himself, stepped out from the cracked glass. It was Kael, yet not. He stood, crimson-eyed, regal, with the Hollow crown burning above his brow.
Rayne's fire flickered uncertainly. "Another trial?"
The crowned Kael smiled, cruel and cold. "No, this is truth!"
It raised a blade identical to Veindrinker, its runes glowing brighter than Kael's. The chamber trembled as the reflection's voice echoed with the Hollow Queen's.
"You cannot fight what you are. You cannot love what you are cursed to destroy."
Kael staggered to his feet, rage and dread churning on his chest. His expression stoic. "Then I will destroy you first."
The two Kaels clashed, steel on steel, crimson fire lighting the chamber.
Steel rang against steel as Kael's blade met his reflection's. Sparks burst, red against red, illuminating the chamber in strobing light. Veindrinker screamed in his hands, its runes blazing as if in protest against its double.
The reflection's eyes burned like coals. Its smile was Kael's but twisted, hungry.
"You waste your strength denying me. Accept what you are, and you will command armies. You will never fear loss again."
Kael gritted his teeth, forcing the blade aside. His arm shook with the effort. "I would rather break than bow."
The reflection shoved him back, their blades locking. "And what of her?" Its crimson gaze flicked toward Rayne who was standing at the edge of the chamber. "She will never see you as anything more than the blood that destroyed her clan. Better to rule her in chains than die beneath her mistrust."
The words cut deeper than Kael would want to admit, deeper than any blade. Kael faltered for an instant, and the reflection struck. Its sword grazing his chest, making the mark sear hotter, blood welling at the wound.
Rayne surged forward, fire spilling from her dagger. "He is not you."
The reflection moved like shadow, its blade sweeping in an arc that knocked her back against the wall. Her fire sputtered, dimming as she struggled to rise.
"You see?", it taunted. "Even her fire bends to me. You cannot protect her, you NEVER will."
Kael's chest heaved. He was stoic in the face of his own pain, but seeing her hurt twisted his insides in a manner he couldn't explain. He remembered the first moment he had truly seen Rayne in the Vale, the defiance in her eyes, the way she had refused to bow even when the Hunt closed in around her. That memory anchored him now and gave him renewed strength in their shared defiance.
He forced himself upright, pain blazing through every vein. "You will not decide who she is. Or who I am."
Veindrinker pulsed, brighter and brighter, feeding on his defiance. He pressed forward, clashing against his double again. Each strike sent cracks racing through the mirror, light bleeding from every fracture.
The reflection's voice rose, desperate, furious. "You are me. You will wear the crown. You will break her, as all your blood has done."
Kael roared, driving his blade down with every ounce of strength he had left. Veindrinker tore through the reflection's sword, shattering it into shards of crimson flame. Kael struck again this time aiming for the reflection itself, his blade piercing the reflection's chest.
The image screamed, its body breaking apart in a storm of bloodlight and shadow. The mirror behind it shattered, exploding outward in shards that rained across the chamber.
Kael staggered back, chest burning, blood running hot from the wound at his collarbone. Veindrinker dimmed, but the reflection's words lingered in the silence.
Rayne pushed herself upright, fire sparkling weakly at her fingertips. Her eyes met his, sharp and unreadable, but in her mind, the wall of her resolve was cracking ever so lightly. "You fought yourself."
Kael wiped blood from his mouth, his voice raw. "No. I fought what my blood wants me to be."
Her gaze lingered on him for a moment, softer than before, though shadowed in doubt. She turned away, refusing to let him see more than she was willing to admit.
At the chamber's far end, where the mirror had stood, a new passage yawned wide, lit by the faint red glow of the runes on it. From the depths came another whisper, low and chilling.
"The crown watches. The bond weakens."
Kael's grip tightened on his sword. He had won the fight, but the battle inside him was far from over and he was weakening.
The shards of the mirror lay scattered across the stone, their edges glinting faintly with lingering crimson light. Each shard held fragments of the reflection's face, fading slowly into nothing, as though the Hollow Queen's influence retreated only reluctantly.
Kael stood among them, his chest heaving, his shirt torn and stained with blood from the cut his double left across his collarbone. The mark pulsed there still, angrier, brighter, as if the reflection's defeat had only deepened its hold.
Rayne's fire dimmed to a pale glow as she stepped closer, her eyes scanning him with wary intensity. "It left its mark on you."
Kael nodded grimly, gripping Veindrinker so tightly his knuckles whitened. "It was my mark to begin with. It only tried to claim it."
Her gaze flicked to the blood running down his chest. She hesitated just long enough for him to notice before turning her attention to the runes along the walls. "The trial was meant to show us what the Hollow Crown does. It twists blood into chains. It wants you broken."
Kael's voice was low, steady despite the ache in his chest. "And it wants you to hate me for it," he said. Letting his anxiety seep through his words.
Her eyes narrowed at the words, as though he had peeled away a truth she had worked to bury. "Do not pretend it does not have reason. My clan burned because of your bloodline. My people screamed while your kin sat on a throne of ash."
The words struck harder than the reflection's blade. Kael swallowed the anger that rose, forcing himself to speak with control. "I was a child when they did. I did not order their destruction."
Her fire sputtered as she turned away, shoulder's tight. "But you carry the same blood. That is enough."
Silence pressed heavy between them. Kael stared at her back, the ache in his chest deepening. He wanted to tell her that he felt the bond pulling him toward her, that the thought of losing her in this cursed labyrinth terrified him more than death. But he bit the words back. She was not ready to hear them, and he was not ready to speak them.
Instead he forced his voice flat. "Then we move forward. We finish this trial before it kills us both."
Rayne turned her face slightly, her expression unreadable in the flickering firelight. "For now," she said quietly.
They walked together toward the new passage, side by side, yet divided by a wall of mistrust and silence. The runes on the wall pulsed faintly with crimson light, echoing Kael's mark. The air grew colder as they descended deeper.
From behind them, a shard of the mirror cracked one last time. The faint whisper of the Hollow Queen drifted through the chamber.
"You may fight me. You may resist. But the crown will claim what is its own."
Kael did not look back.