CROWN'S CALL & THE RISING CHAOS
Kai's POV
I sat on the cold cell floor and tried not to think about how scared I was. It was smooth and white on all sides, and I was in it alone with the thin blanket they’d handed me. No windows. No sound but the thrum of appliances in some distant place. They had taken the crown. Tore it off my head as if it were nothing. Like it didn't matter.
But they didn't understand.
The crown was not simply something I had worn. It is part of me now. I could still sense it, as if each of us had a second heartbeat at the back of our minds. Distant but there. Alive. Warm. Waiting.
I shut my eyes and put my hands on the floor in an effort to concentrate. My head hurts. My chest felt tight. But I could feel the crown tugging on me through the walls and obstacles th
