"Your Majesty, please," I turned to King Aldric. "Don't let him do this. There has to be another option."
The King was quiet for a long moment, studying his youngest son. "Kael, if you do this ritual and survive, you'll be changed forever. Connected to shadow magic in ways we can't fully predict. Your life will never be the same."
"My life has never been normal anyway. At least this way, the curse that's defined my entire existence will finally serve a purpose beyond making people fear me." Kael moved to stand before his father. "I want to do this. I choose to do this. Give me your permission."
Another long silence. Then King Aldric nodded slowly.
"Do it. Perform the ritual. Give us the advantage we need." The King's voice was rough with emotion. "And Kael? I'm proud of you. I should have said that years ago, but I'm saying it now. I'm proud of you."
Kael looked stunned, like he'd never expected to hear those words. "Thank you, Father."
"Don't thank me. Just survive. Come back from this ritual still yourself, still my son. That's all I ask."
I wanted to scream, to argue more, to physically prevent Kael from going through with this insane plan. But I could see the determination in his face, the decision already made.
"How long does the ritual take?" I asked Elena, my voice barely steady.
"Several hours. And it has to be done before Daemon's forces arrive, while his shadow beasts are still approaching. The binding works better with distance—once they're too close, their connection to Daemon becomes too strong to break."
"Then we start immediately." Kael looked at me, his gray eyes intense. "Elara, I need you to oversee the final defensive preparations while I'm occupied. Can you do that?"
"You know I can. But Kael—" My voice broke. "What if something goes wrong? What if the ritual changes you into something I don't recognize?"
"Then you'll help me find my way back. Just like you've been doing since the day we met." He pulled me close, ignoring everyone watching. "I love you. Remember that, whatever happens."
"I love you too. So much it terrifies me." I kissed him, tasting fear and desperation and hope. "Come back to me. That's not a request, that's a requirement."
"I'll do my best. That's all I can promise."
Elena gestured toward the door. "We need to begin now. The ritual requires specific preparations, and Daemon's forces are getting closer every minute."
Kael released me reluctantly and followed Elena out. I watched him go, every instinct screaming at me to stop this, to find another way, to do anything except let him walk toward something that could destroy the man I loved.
"He'll survive," Theron said quietly beside me. "Kael is stronger than any of us give him credit for. He'll get through this."
"And if he doesn't? If he becomes something else, something dangerous?"
"Then we'll deal with it. Together. Because that's what family does." Theron squeezed my shoulder. "But I don't think it will come to that. Kael has you to come back to. That's more powerful than any curse."
I wanted to believe that. Wanted to think love was enough to anchor Kael through whatever the ritual would do to him. But I'd seen what shadow magic could do, how it twisted and corrupted. Elena had warned the ritual might change him permanently.
What if the Kael who emerged from that ritual wasn't the man I'd fallen in love with?
"Princess?" Captain Thorne's voice pulled me from spiraling thoughts. "We need to finalize troop positions before Daemon arrives. I need your input on the fallback strategy."
Right. The battle. The defense. The hundreds of people depending on me to help keep them alive.
I couldn't afford to fall apart now. Couldn't let fear for Kael paralyze me when there was so much that still needed to be done.
"Show me the positions," I said, forcing strength into my voice. "We have a few hours at most. Let's make them count."
We threw ourselves back into preparations. Every moment Kael spent in ritual was a moment I spent ensuring the defenses were as strong as possible. If he was risking everything to give us an advantage, the least I could do was make sure we capitalized on it.
But underneath the tactical planning and strategic decisions, fear gnawed at me. Fear that the ritual would fail. Fear that Kael would be lost to shadow magic. Fear that even if he survived, he'd be changed beyond recognition.
Fear that today might be the day I lost everything that mattered.
"My Lady," Mira appeared with armor. "You need to put this on. If you're going to be on the walls during the battle, you need protection."
The armor was light, designed for mobility rather than heavy combat, but it still felt foreign on my body. I'd been training with weapons for weeks now, but wearing actual armor made everything feel terrifyingly real.
"How do I look?" I asked, trying for levity.
"Like a warrior princess ready to defend her kingdom." Mira's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I'm proud of you, you know. The girl I helped raise has become someone extraordinary."
"I'm terrified."
"That just means you're sane. Only fools aren't afraid before battle." She helped me strap on the last pieces of armor. "But you'll fight anyway, because that's who you are now. Someone who fights."
"Someone who has no choice but to fight."
"There's always a choice. You're choosing to stand with your people instead of running. That matters."
A commotion outside made us both turn. Shouts, the sound of running feet, the distinctive clang of alarm bells.
"They're here," Mira breathed. "Daemon's forces have been sighted."
My heart was hammered. Too soon. The ritual wasn't finished yet. Kael wasn't ready.
We weren't ready.
But ready or not, the battle was beginning.
I grabbed my weapons and ran toward the walls, Mira close behind me. Around us, the castle erupted into organized chaos as soldiers rushed to positions, archers knocked arrows, and everyone prepared for the assault we'd been dreading.
I reached the outer wall to find Captain Thorne already there, his spyglass trained on the approaching force.
"How many?" I demanded.
"All of them. Three hundred soldiers in formation, and..." He lowered the spyglass, his face pale. "The shadow beasts are at the front. Dozens of them, moving faster than the soldiers. They'll reach the walls first."
"Where's Kael? Is the ritual complete?"
"I don't know. Elena hasn't sent a word."
This was a disaster. If Kael couldn't bind the shadow beasts before they attacked, we'd have no defense against them. Our soldiers would be slaughtered.
"Send runners to Elena," I ordered. "Find out the ritual's status. We need to know if Kael can help us or if we're on our own."
"Already done. The runner left two minutes ago."
I gripped the wall's stone edge, staring out at the approaching army. In daylight, they looked even more terrifying than I'd imagined. The soldiers moved with disciplined precision, their armor gleaming in the afternoon sun. And ahead of them, the shadow beasts flowed across the ground like living darkness, their forms constantly shifting and changing.
Fifty of them. Maybe more. Each one capable of killing multiple soldiers before being brought down.
We were going to die here.
No. I couldn't think like that. Couldn't give in to despair before the battle even began.
"Archers!" I called out, my voice carrying across the wall. "Prepare to loose on my command! We hold this wall as long as we can! Make every arrow count!"
The archers raised their bows, arrows nocked and ready. Below, infantry formed up behind the gate, prepared to engage if the outer wall was breached.
The shadow beasts drew closer. I could see them more clearly now—creatures of pure darkness with glowing red eyes and forms that defied normal physics. They moved impossibly fast, covering ground at speeds no living thing should manage.
"Steady!" I called out, even though my own hands were shaking. "Wait for them to come into range!"
The beasts were two hundred yards away. Then one hundred and fifty. One hundred.
"Princess!" A runner sprinted up the wall stairs, gasping. "Message from Lady Elena! The ritual is complete but Prince Kael is still recovering! He needs five more minutes before he can attempt to control the beasts!"
Five minutes. The beasts would reach us in less than one.
"We hold for five minutes," I said, more to myself than anyone else. "We can do that. We have to do that."
The shadow beasts reached the hundred-yard mark.
"Archers! Loose!"
A hundred arrows flew through the air in perfect unison, a deadly rain of wood and steel. They struck the lead beasts, and for a moment I dared to hope—
The arrows passed through the creatures harmlessly. The shadow beasts were incorporeal, immune to physical weapons.
"Gods above," someone whispered beside me.
The beasts hit the wall with bone-shaking force, their claws finding purchase on stone that should have been too smooth to climb. They swarmed upward like a wave of living darkness, moving toward the archers with murderous intent.
"Fall back!" I screamed. "Everyone off the wall! Retreat to the second line!"
But it was too late. The first beast crested the wall and struck an archer before he could react. The man's scream cut off abruptly as the creature tore through him, his body dissolving into shadow.
More beasts followed. Soldiers tried to fight with swords and spears, but conventional weapons were useless. The creatures slaughtered anyone who stood against them, moving through our defenses like they weren't there.
This was the nightmare scenario we'd feared. And Kael was still five minutes away from being able to help.
Five minutes we didn't have.
"Everyone to the inner keep!" Captain Thorne was shouting. "Abandon the outer wall! Fall back to defensible positions!"
The retreat was chaos. Soldiers running, beasts pursuing, people dying as they tried to reach safety. I found myself swept along with the crowd, fighting against panic as shadow creatures killed anyone too slow.
We reached the inner keep's gates and soldiers slammed them shut, but I knew it wouldn't matter. The beasts could pass through solid objects. Walls and doors meant nothing to them.
We were trapped, waiting to die, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Then I felt it. A pulse of magic so strong it made the air itself vibrate. Dark power rolling across the castle like a physical wave.
And the shadow beasts stopped.
Just froze in place, their red eyes suddenly confused instead of murderous.
A figure appeared on the outer wall, silhouetted against the afternoon sun. Even from this distance, I recognized him.
Kael.
His shade manifested around him, but different than I'd ever seen it. Larger, more solid, shot through with veins of silver light that pulsed with each breath. And around him, the shadow beasts were turning. Not toward us. Toward him.
They'd been bound. The ritual had worked.
"The beasts are under his control!" Elena's voice rang out from somewhere nearby. "Prince Kael has bound them to his will! They're ours now!"
Relief flooded through me so powerfully I nearly collapsed. Kael was alive. The ritual had succeeded. We had a fighting chance.
But my relief was short-lived as I watched Kael standing on the wall, his body rigid with effort, his shade writhing around him as he maintained control over fifty hostile creatures simultaneously.
The cost of the binding was written across his face even from this distance. This wasn't easy magic. This was destroying him moment by moment.
"How long can he maintain control?" I demanded, turning to find Elena.
She looked grave. "Not long. Minutes, maybe. The binding was never meant to control this many beasts for extended periods. He's burning through his life force to maintain it."
"Then we need to end this battle quickly. Before the binding kills him."
I turned to Captain Thorne. "Gather every fighter we have. Kael's bought us time, but we need to use it. Daemon's soldiers are still coming, and they won't stop just because we've taken their beasts. We engage them now, while they're confused and demoralized. We end this before Kael burns himself out."
"You heard the Princess!" Captain Thorne's voice boomed. "All forces to the gates! We take the fight to them!"
The gates opened and we poured out, a wave of desperate fighters rushing to meet Daemon's stunned army. Above us on the wall, Kael stood like a dark god, his bound shadow beasts forming a protective barrier between us and the enemy.
And somewhere in that approaching army, Daemon himself waited, watching his carefully laid plans unravel because of a ritual he'd never expected us to know about.
The battle for Shadowmere had truly begun.