Chapter 144 Internal Celebration
Elara's POV
"I'm sorry, Elara," Faye said, her void-corrupted eyes glowing red. "I tried to fight it."
Her hands moved against her will, magic forming to attack me.
I threw up an ice shield. "Faye! Fight it! I know you're still in there!"
"She can't," the Void Empress spoke through Faye's mouth. "She's mine now."
Guards burst in, but I stopped them. "Don't hurt her! She's being controlled!"
Faye's attack hit my shield, shattering it. I stumbled back.
Then Lily appeared. She grabbed Faye's hands, light magic blazing. "Get out of my friend!"
The void corruption recoiled. Faye screamed and collapsed.
When she looked up, her eyes were normal again. Blue. Terrified.
"Elara?" she gasped. "What happened? Why am I in chains?"
"You don't remember?" I knelt beside her.
"I remember healing Drakon after the serpent attack. Then... nothing. Just darkness. And voices." Her face crumpled. "How long?"
"Months," I said gently. "The Void Empress has been controlling you."
Faye started crying. "I destroyed the archives. I was the traitor. I almost killed you."
"You fought it. You warned us." I held her hands. "We'll find a way to free you completely."
"There is no way," Faye sobbed. "The corruption is too deep. You should just..."
"Don't," I said firmly. "We've faced impossible before. We'll face it again."
We moved Faye to a protected room. Lily's light magic kept the Void Empress from taking control, but it was temporary.
"I can't maintain this forever," Lily said, exhausted.
"Then we work fast," I said. "Find a permanent solution."
But first, we had a festival to attend.
"The people need to see us celebrating," Drakon said. "Show them we're not defeated by threats."
He was right. Leaders couldn't show fear, even when terrified.
We walked into the festival, forcing smiles. The celebration was beautiful. Music everywhere. People dancing and laughing.
A former soldier approached me. "Your Majesty! I wanted you to meet someone." He brought forward a werewolf. "This is Marcus. We fought on opposite sides during the wars. He nearly killed me."
"And he nearly killed me," Marcus added, grinning. "Now we run a business together. Selling weapons we'll never use for war."
"We turned our swords into farming tools," the soldier explained. "More money in peace than fighting."
More people shared stories. A human woman married to a dragon shifter. A merfolk teacher educating human children. An ice faerie and a human opening a bakery together.
"Two years ago, my son was killed in the war," an elderly woman said. "I hated all magical creatures. Blamed them for his death." She gestured to a young griffin beside her. "Now this one lives with me. Helps me with chores. Reads to me at night. She's the daughter I never had."
The griffin hugged her. "And she's the grandmother I lost."
I watched it all with tears in my eyes. This was why we fought. For moments like these.
"You did this," Drakon murmured. "Changed everything."
"We did it," I corrected. "Together."
The festival continued into the night. I gave a speech about hope. About choosing love over fear.
People cheered and believed.
But as the crowd dispersed, Drakon pulled me aside.
"There's something I need to show you," he said quietly. "Something I've never shown anyone."
"What?"
"My family's tomb. Where my parents are buried." His eyes were vulnerable. "I want you to know them. To understand where I come from."
"Now? In the middle of everything?"
"Especially now. With war coming. With threats everywhere." He took my hand. "I need you to know why I fight so hard for peace. Why their dream became mine."
We left the festival and flew on his dragon back into the mountains. To a hidden cave sealed with magic.
Drakon shifted human and opened the seal. Inside, two massive stone coffins lay side by side.
"My mother was human," he said softly. "My father was a dragon. Like you and me, but three hundred years ago."
I stared at the coffins. "I didn't know."
"Nobody does. I kept it secret. Thought people wouldn't follow a half-breed king." He touched his mother's coffin. "They died trying to unite humans and dragons. Trying to create what you and I have now."
"How did they die?"
"Assassinated. By people who feared what they represented." His voice broke. "I was ten years old. Watched them die. Couldn't save them."
I pulled him close. Through our bond, I felt his old pain. His guilt. His determination.
"I swore I'd finish what they started," Drakon continued. "But I failed for a hundred years. Too afraid. Too hurt. Then you came."
"And you finally succeeded."
"We succeeded." He looked at me. "You're not just my mate. You're the fulfillment of my parents' dream. Everything they died for."
I kissed him softly. "Then we honor them by protecting what we've built."
We stood in silence, paying respects to his parents.
Then Drakon froze. "Do you hear that?"
I listened. A scraping sound. Coming from inside his mother's coffin.
"That's impossible," Drakon breathed. "She's been dead for three hundred years."
The scraping got louder. More insistent.
Then the coffin lid moved.
Something was inside.
Something alive.
And it was trying to get out.