The Hollow Crown had marked her.
The seed had bloomed.
But Isabella did not feel shattered. She felt awake.
The night air outside the great tree was warmer now—charged, alive with something older than magic, older than history. Kael stood near her, his body still tense from what he’d witnessed: the tree cracking open, her scream echoing from every limb, the crown burning itself into her brow.
But it was her eyes that truly undid him. No longer jade, no longer singular—kaleidoscopic. She saw him in ways she never could before. Saw all his doubts, all his fears, all the fierce, desperate love he tried to cage behind duty.
And Kael… Kael saw her.
Not the girl who had once trembled in his arms.
Not the warrior rising through trials.
But the woman now—crowned, claimed, undeniable.
He d
