The Choice

It wasn't the warm glow of the ghost light. It was a beam of brilliant, cold violet light that cut through the darkness from the Royal Box, pinning them to the stage like insects in a display case.

Leo threw his arm up to shield his eyes. "Run, Sera!"

But Sera didn't run. She stopped.

In the blinding glare, a figure was visible in the Royal Box. It was a silhouette of pure darkness, darker than the shadows around it. It wore a suit of velvet night, and on its head rested a crown that seemed to be made of smoke and broken glass.

The Shadow King stood. He didn't speak. He didn't have to.

He extended a hand over the railing. In his palm, floating unsupported, was a second crown. It pulsed with a dark, hypnotic rhythm.

* Adoration,* it promised. *Worship. Eternity.*

The pull was physical. Leo felt it in his teeth, a vibration of pure power.

Sera’s hand went slack in Leo’s grip.

"Sera?" Leo warned, tightening his hold. "Don't look at him. Look at me."

Sera turned her head. She looked at Leo. She saw the safety in his eyes. She saw the tea, the quiet nights, the ordinary life he offered.

Then she looked back at the King. She saw the millions of eyes, the flashbulbs, the immortality.

Her spine straightened. The fragile girl who had cried in the dust vanished. The Queen returned, colder and harder than before.

"Sera, please," Leo begged, pulling her arm. "We were leaving. We were going home."

Sera looked down at their joined hands. She sneered.

"Home?" she laughed, a high, brittle sound that echoed off the vaulted ceiling. "Home is for people who are afraid of the dark, Leo. I was born to rule it."

She ripped her hand away from him.

"Sera!"

"I am not a girl running home to a commoner," she said, her voice dropping an octave, resonating with the theater’s acoustics. She turned her back on him. She walked into the violet spotlight. "I am the Queen."

She spread her arms wide, embracing the cold light.

"I accept!" she screamed at the Royal Box. "I accept the crown!"

The Shadow King clapped his hands once.