“What happened?” He kept his eyes locked with hers.

“The Emperor.” No matter what the man had done to her, to them, he had been Aldrik’s father. Vhalla’s voice softened. “Your father, the Empress, they’re dead.”

“What?” Elecia stepped forward as if she had somehow misheard Vhalla.

Aldrik tried to reach out, but only briefly. The spark that brought his hands to life was gone, and they hung at his side. His lips parted, and she saw the shock crash down on him. Her heart broke for the man she loved. First his brother, now his father, and who knew how many countless others were dead and gone.

Panic momentarily overwhelmed her at the thought of everyone she still loved in the capital, but Vhalla pushed through it.

“There was a messenger—a tainted abomination—sent from Victor. I can only assume one of many,” Vhalla answered Elecia, though her gaze stayed on Aldrik. “He was dead, long dead. But there was a crystal through his eye, and it somehow kept him moving.” She shook her head; it was magic beyond her understanding. Sehra had said as much. All the rules were gone now. This would be a fight unlike any they had ever seen. “He said Victor had become the supreme king of this world. That the old regime, the family Solaris and all who supported them in the capital, were dead.”

Her words filled the forest clearing, and Vhalla could see the moment everyone understood their meaning. Aldrik visibly swayed a moment, taking a step to adjust his balance. Vhalla’s hand rose to the watch at her neck. He was a prince without a throne. A man who had lost his mother, his brother, now his father, along with his kingdom and everything he had ever known. No one said a word. Aldrik stared blankly at her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. With those words, she knew it became real for him. Her sympathy, her pain on his behalf made the rest of it true, just as it had with Baldair.

He opened and closed his mouth, trying to find words. Her prince, he had endured so much death, so much loss and hurt that she could not save him from. Now Vhalla feared he was on the point of breaking. She took a step forward, at the same time as Orel.

“There is only one true king, one true lord of these lands. It is not some man whom I have never heard of before,” the head of the Charem family announced.

Aldrik turned to face the burly woodcutter, his eyes wide and expressionless.

“And that lord stands before me.” The man dropped to a knee, bowing his head. “Long live the Emperor Solaris.”

Aldrik blinked at Orel, still at an utter loss for words.

“Long live the Emperor Solaris.” Tama repeated her husband’s words dutifully, and the matriarch sunk to her knees.

“Long live Solaris,” Elecia announced proudly. Jax echoed the same, and both Westerners dropped to a knee, their heads bowed.

One by one, the Charem children began to follow suit. Each proclaimed their loyalty before sinking into the snow. To Vhalla’s shock, she witnessed the Northerners drop to their knees as well. The princess’s eyes were fixed on hers, and they spoke silent volumes, reminding Vhalla that their loyalty was on contingency. That their deal now mattered more than ever.

Vhalla turned back to Aldrik.

It was not a grand coronation in the Chapel of the Sun. There were no Crones to lead oaths. The wind replaced trumpets and snow replaced confetti of gold. He did not stand upon the Sunlit Stage, swathed in gold and white. There was no blazing crown of the sun to be placed upon his brow.

His succession came washed in the blood of his father and all who dared support his name. His gifts, his prizes of leadership, were loss and hardship. There was no mantle of the sun to settle upon his shoulders, only pain.

But she had lived to see that day. Vhalla was there the moment her prince became her Emperor. He turned back to her helplessly. For the first time in the whole of knowing him, Aldrik looked lost, shell-shocked. She tried to offer him an encouraging smile, but there was only one thing to be done. She had something more important to give him than her smiles. Vhalla dropped to her knee before the Emperor of the realms.

“Long live Solaris.”