Chapter 61

As Erebus crawls toward the enchanted crown, Selwyn arrives from above and stops him with green aether, severing Erebus’s hand and blasting his shoulder. Bree’s restored memories and feelings for Sel return in a rush, while Sel mocks Erebus’s slow healing and confronts him for orchestrating attacks, framing Sel as a traitor, and working against Bree.

Erebus warns Bree that she still bears his mark, lacks a sword, and remains poisoned, then escapes in a cloud of darkness. After he is gone, Sel recognizes that Bree is fully herself again through her magic and scent. Bree, Nick, and Sel discuss the crown’s history: Merlin took it from Arawn, the Morgaines hid it with an enchantment, and now Arawn knows they possess it and that Nick may be able to remove the protection.

Sel becomes tempted to touch the crown despite Bree and Nick’s warnings that the Morgaine enchantment could kill a demon and that Sel’s current state is more demonic than before. Nick uses his new speed to snatch the crown away before Sel can touch it, but holding it briefly makes Nick sway because a hidden shard of the crown is bound inside Nick’s chest. Bree restrains Sel with red root, but Sel cuts himself free and prepares to attack again.

As Sel summons green flame, Bree’s bloodmark flares in rhythm with Sel’s hand movements. Bree and Nick realize the mark is responding not to Erebus, but to Sel’s altered magic. Sel explains that since waking in his mother’s cabin, Sel sensed a deep well of power and tried to call to it, and Bree identifies the possible reason: bloodmarks can be inherited.

Before Bree and Nick can stop Sel, Sel binds them with green aether and reaches for the crown. Bree warns that even if Sel survives the enchantment, Arawn made the crown as a living weapon for its true bearer, so it could kill Sel anyway. Sel touches the crown, black shadows erupt over Sel’s body, and Bree and Nick fail to break free in time. The crown’s power consumes Sel, his restraints fade, and Selwyn Kane dies in silence before them.