Chapter 96 The Crownless Path

• Scott didn’t sleep that night. Not because he was afraid. Because he was listening.
• The Hollowborn no longer spoke in words — they whispered in thoughtless hunger, filling his mind with images of empty kingdoms and thrones made of bone-mirrors. They didn’t lure him with promises of power.
• They offered something more dangerous. Purpose. Lucy stood outside the Flame Sanctuary, palms pressed against the ember runes carved into the wall. Inside, her son knelt in silence, his eyes half-lit with an unnatural glow — not entirely flame, not entirely void. Solwyn joined her, a dark look shadowing his features.