The desert reformed around them—glass dunes, frozen mid-shatter. Alyssandra collapsed, her dragon scales peeling like burnt parchment. Kaelen's Nullborn mark pulsed, the black hourglass leaking sand.
"Get up," he urged, dragging her behind a dune. "They're still coming."
Alyssandra's laughter was broken. "Who's coming? The Maw's dead."
"The Crown's not," Kaelen said. "And neither are we."
---
**The Frozen Desert**
Time had stopped here.
Sand Wraiths circled—a pack of wolves, their bodies decayed to bone, eyes glowing blue. Kaelen summoned his last Void Wolf, but it whimpered, refusing to fight.
"They're time-rotted," Alyssandra realized. "The Crown's doing."
Kaelen's dagger flared. "Then we outrun them."
Alyssandra's mark burned. "You can't outrun what's in your blood."
---
**The Vision**
Kaelen's dagger glowed brighter.
Alyssandra gasped as his blood revealed a new vision: a nursery, a cradle, a name—*Veyth'ra*.
"Your bloodline," she whispered. "You're one of *us*."
Kaelen froze. "Impossible. Seraphine said—"
"—she lied." Alyssandra's voice hardened. "The Crown's been rewriting your past. *That's* why the Maw wanted you."
The Wraiths closed in, their bone claws scraping the glass dunes.
---
**The Bond**
Alyssandra shifted, her dragon form smaller, weaker.
"Take my magic," she said. "Before the Crown takes it all."
Kaelen hesitated. "You'll die."
"Not if you *bind* it."
Her claws dug into his wrist, and their blood mixed. The Nullborn mark flared, consuming the Crown's energy. The Wraiths dissolved into sand.
*"What have you done?"* the Crown's voice echoed.
Alyssandra's human form flickered. "Survived."
---
**The Revelation**
Seraphine's ghost appeared, translucent and mocking.
"You think bonding your blood breaks the Crown?" she asked. "It *feeds* it."
Kaelen's eyes narrowed. "What are you?"
"A memory," Seraphine said. "The Crown's first bride. And your *true* mother."
Alyssandra's dragon wings snapped open. "You're lying."
Seraphine smiled. "Check your blood, boy. The Veyth'ra sigil is there."
---
**The Truth**
Kaelen's dagger cut his palm. Blood swirled, forming the Crown's symbol.
Alyssandra's mark mirrored it. "You're my… cousin?"
"Brother," Seraphine corrected. "The Crown's heir must bond with its Nullborn. *You* were the backup."
Kaelen's voice was ice. "So Alyssandra's the true heir."
"No," Seraphine said. "The Crown has no heir. Only sacrifices."
---
**The Battle**
The ground cracked.
A new beast emerged—a **Time Hydra**, its three heads weeping mercury. Each head bore a face: Alyssandra's mother, Kaelen's father, and the Maw's dragon form.
"Fight it," Alyssandra urged. "It's the Crown's last test."
Kaelen's wolves attacked, but the Hydra's tears aged them to dust. Alyssandra's fire scorched one head, but the others retaliated.
*"You can't win,"* the Hydra hissed. *"The Crown *needs* you both."*
---
**The Sacrifice**
Alyssandra's dragon form destabilized.
"Kaelen," she gasped. "The dagger. Use it on *me*."
"No!"
"**Do it**!"
Kaelen plunged the dagger into her chest. The Hydra screamed. Alyssandra's blood fused with the Crown's core, and the Hydra's heads imploded.
The Crown's voice faded. *"…clever…"*
---
**The Hook**
Alyssandra's human form crumpled.
Kaelen cradled her, his Nullborn mark dimming. "Stay with me."
Her eyes fluttered open—glowing blue. "The Crown's not dead. It's in *you* now."
"What?"
"The Hydra's blood," she whispered. "You absorbed the Maw's chains. And the Crown's… *sentience*."
A sandstorm formed—a hundred Sandreavers, their bodies fused with Seraphine's face.
Kaelen's mark flared. "Looks like the Crown's got plans."