#Chapter 224 – Goddess Blessed

Damon My footsteps echoed down the narrow stairway of the crypt, each one a reminder that I’d avoided this place for far too long. The torchlight wavered as I entered the underground chamber. The air was colder here than outside, even with the torches burning along the walls. The glow crawled across the stone sarcophagus in the center of the room, illuminating the carved crest. My eyes traced the inscription: Here lies the King who conquered the realm and lost his soul to it. I stood there for a long time; hands loose at my sides. This is what I could have become. “I thought ruling like you would make me strong,” I said quietly to the burial of the male who raised me as his son. My voice carried, flat against the stone. “But it only made me an asshole. Alone and angry.” My father had built an empire out of fear. He’d believed control was the pathway to peace and unquestioning obedience was the same as loyalty. I’d carried that lesson into my own reign, thinking it was t