Chapter 28 · The Royal Bloodline Revealed

The ozone in the Thunder Pit was thick enough to chew, sharp and metallic on Nora Vey’s tongue as she swayed on blistered feet. Her palms were raw, blisters bubbling along the creases of her knuckles where she’d dug her fingers straight into the crackling arcane circuitry woven under Kane Rhoan’s skin—no, not just circuitry.

The Thunder Crown’s core, buried at the base of his skull, thrumming in perfect time with the marriage mark burned into her wrist.

That mark was blazing gold now, so bright it made her eyes water, projecting a hologram ten feet above their heads: the sigil of the Rhoan dynasty, a crown wreathed in forked lightning, spinning slow enough for every soul in the floating arena to trace its edges.

The crowd’s roar was a physical thing, shaking the stone stands so hard loose gravel rained down onto the pit floor. From the upper tiers, she heard high, sharp screams—nobles in silk gowns stitched with sapphires, clutching pearl necklaces, yelling for guards to put down the “criminal.