ELLA'S POV
The shadow thing charges, and every instinct screams RUN.
But I'm frozen. This thing oozes wrongness. My magic recoils, trying to hide inside me.
"MOVE!" Adrian shoves me aside as skeleton claws swipe where my head was. The creature's touch leaves black scorch marks, killing the silver flowers immediately.
"What is that?" I scramble backward.
"Void spawn!" Seraphina's voice cracks with fear. "They're dead. We destroyed them all!"
"You missed one!" David shifts, lunging at the thing. His jaws pass straight through like smoke. It backhands him into a tree with a painful crunch.
The monster locks those green eyes on me. "BRIDGE BLOOD. PROPHECY ENDER."
Ten shifters attack simultaneously. Their claws pass through harmlessly. When it hits back, its claws tear through flesh. Shifters fall screaming.
"Use magic!" Lyra throws purple lightning. It actually hurts the creature. "Physical attacks don't work!"
But the Forgotten Ones are weak from three hundred years in a dying land. Their magic sputters uselessly.
The Void spawn goes straight for me.
"It's targeting her," Marcus realizes. "The prophecy magic."
"Break the bond!" Seraphina leads. "Before it kills everyone!"
"NO!" Adrian shifts fully, his silver fur burning with golden bond-light. He charges head-on. His enchanted claws actually hit, tearing off the creature's arm.
It screams, reforming quickly, and grabs Adrian by the throat. Black poison spreads where it touches him.
"NO!" My magic bursts outward—pure desperation and rage. Purple lightning slams into the Void spawn.
It drops Adrian and grins at me. "YES. SHOW POWER. MAKE DEATH MEANINGFUL."
I understand suddenly. "You're testing the prophecy, not stopping it."
" WEAK BRIDGES COLLAPSE. BREAK. "
It hits faster. I throw everything at it—some works, most doesn't. I'm too untrained.
It gets closer. Ten feet. Five feet.
Adrian lunges again. The creature swats him away. He hits the ground dazed.
I grab the mate bond and pull, weaponizing it. Adrian's strength fills me. My magic fills him. We become one being in two bodies.
I hit the creature with our joint power. It bursts into shadows.
Then changes. As three creatures.
"It multiplies when you use bond magic!" Lyra shouts. "You're making it stronger!"
"How do we kill it?"
"You don't!" Seraphina pulls out a bright crystal. "You banish it. But it needs three royal blood performing the ritual."
"I'll do it," I say.
"So will I," Seraphina agrees.
"We need one more," Lyra says. "Direct royal line."
A small voice: "Me."
The little girl who asked about stopping pain moves forward. Six years old.
"Absolutely not," I say.
"I'm Princess Aria Moonshadow. Seraphina's great-granddaughter. It has to be me."
"She's a baby!"
"The ritual requires life force," Seraphina says coldly. "One of us won't survive. Better the youngest."
"You're sacrificing a child?"
"I'm sacrificing my last descendant to save our species."
The Void spawn circle. More people fall.
Little Aria takes my hand. "It's okay, bridge lady. I can help."
"I'll take her place," I say.
"You're the bridge. You die, prophecy dies." Seraphina's eyes hold ages of pain. "It has to be her."
We're out of time.
Aria squeezes my hand. "Will it hurt?"
"Probably."
"That's okay. At least this hurt means something."
We form a triangle. Seraphina sings. My magic flows into the crystal. Aria's too.
The Void spawn charge. Adrian and both forces buy us seconds.
The crystal pulls harder. Aria's face goes pale. She's dying.
"STOP!" I break the practice. "I won't kill kids!"
"We must!" Seraphina shouts.
"Then find another way!" I grab Aria and Adrian. "Bridges connect things! If three royals means one dies, what if we add someone linked through a mate bond?"
"That's insane!"
"Got better ideas?" I look at Adrian. "This will hurt."
"Everything about you hurts," he says, smiling. "Do it."
I start the ritual using Adrian as a conduit, sharing the life drain across all four of us.
The crystal bursts with light. The Void spawn scream as reality rips open beneath them, sucking them into nothingness.
We fall. Aria's living. Adrian's living. Seraphina looks older but intact.
"That shouldn't have worked," the queen whispers.
"But it did. That's what bridges do."
Both forces stare in shocked silence. Then someone claps. It builds—shifters and Forgotten alike, cheering.
"Perhaps you really are worthy," Seraphina says. She addresses the troops. "Tonight, we bury our dead together. The first act of peace."
Marcus nods tiredly.
Adrian wraps his arms around me. "You okay?"
"No. That was terrifying."
"You need to prepare for the trials. Six hours until dawn."
"Right. The underwater death test."
A new voice—female, cheerful: "Not a chance you're skipping!"
A young woman approaches, grinning. Silver hair in braids, old armor, glowing swords.
"I'm Zara Moonshadow. Princess, warrior, your teacher. Six hours to teach you not to die." Her grin widens. "This'll be fun."
"Fun?"
"The Drowning has killed forty-seven applicants. You're forty-eight." She grabs my arm. "But I've got a secret. The creatures underwater? They're testing if you'll kill them first. Fight back, you fail. So how do you live without fighting?"
I stare. "That's impossible."
"Yep! Welcome to royalty."
Adrian tries to follow. Zara points a sword at him. "Nope. Mates aren't allowed. Royal law."
"Ella—"
"I'll be fine," I lie.
As Zara drags me toward a lake that wasn't there before, I understand I don't have a choice.
The trials begin at dawn.
And I probably won't survive them.