Chapter 38 · The Vey Family’s Sin

The crown burned through Nora’s palm without leaving a wound.

Light crawled beneath her skin in branching silver lines, racing from her hand to her wrist, then up her arm like a storm searching for a place to break. The core of the Thunder Crown hovered before her, no larger than a clenched fist, its metal rings turning in silence. Every rotation sent a pulse through the tower.

Below them, Asterfall groaned.

The floating city’s engines answered the crown in distant, shuddering bursts. Bridges swung against their anchors. Windowpanes flashed blue across the dark. Somewhere far beneath the tower, the execution bureau’s alarm bells began to ring—not one bell, but hundreds, all striking at once.

The crown had chosen her.

Nora could still hear the royal echo repeating the verdict inside her skull.

True heir.

The words should have filled her with triumph. Instead, they opened something cold and bottomless beneath her ribs.

Kane stood beside her, one hand still locked around hers. The thunderlight that had once torn through his veins now flowed along the invisible connection between them, thinner and steadier than before. He looked at her as if the tower had changed the shape of her face.