Nymera’s POV
The ground was gone.
The throne vanished.
And I was falling.
Not physically—but through time, memory, and something older than either. The echo of a thousand lives screamed through me. I didn’t remember them all. I didn’t need to. Their pain, their rage—it was all mine.
And at the center of it stood her.
The other me.
Chained to the obsidian roots of the Hollow Throne. Eyes glowing with madness. Spiral runes crawling up her throat like vines.
She didn’t blink.
She didn’t breathe.
But she watched me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Her lips curled. Not a smile. A warning.
“I’m who you become when you give up.”
The chains rattled.
I stepped back, pulse crashing against my ribs.
“That won’t be me.”
She tilted her head. “It already is. You just haven’t caught up yet.”
Th
