Jasmine’s POV~The altar summoned me, and for the first time since Vira ripped away from me, I did not want to flee it. My name was still emblazed at the stone's core, written in golden fire. As soon as I moved closer, the runes along the circle exploded in response — not to me per se, but to something inside me I hadn’t realized was there, until now. Something older. Something buried in my blood.“Elara,” I murmured, hearing her exhale behind me. “Do you see it?”“I do.” Her voice was tight. “But I don’t know what it is.”Damien was by her side now, eyes fixed on the altar. “We’ve seen your name carved in magic before, but never like this.”Caspian added, “It’s binding. This isn’t just a call — it’s a summons.” I sank slowly on my knees before the altar, my hand over the stone. “What if I answer?” I asked.“You already have,” the girl—Crown Seed, Phase Zero, whatever she was—said to him. She was standing outside the circle, motionless. “That’s why they’re coming.”“Who are they?” She
Jasmine's POv~I returned choking on the air. It tasted like cinders and sweat and something older than memory. I rose slowly from the ground, my hands wet with blood that wasn’t my own, my vision falling between the shades of light and darkness.Voices broke through first—familiar ones. Elara. Damien. Lyra. All of them yelling in pieces, all attempting to grab hold of something that I had not understood yet. And then I felt the burn in my other shoulder.It wasn’t just a mark. It was a door. One Kaelen seared into me before he’d vanished into that patchworked place. I pressed my hand to it as I rose, attempting to breathe through the agony. “Jasmine!” Elara’s voice sliced through everything. She was at my side a second later, but her eyes were reading mine for something—damage, perhaps. “Where did you go?”I shook my head. “Not a place. A warning. Kaelen’s awake.”Damien came up tight against him, face clenching. “He found you?”“He showed me what’s coming.”No one moved. I finally l
Damien's POV~I perceived the smell of blood before I got to see it. It had a metallic, sharp, and too familiar smell. It wheezed anger into my lungs, pulling me back to recall the years I wanted to leave behind. Back to the bridge, the shortcut cut and the nights when fear was answered only with killing quickly. But this time it wasn’t some faceless enemy.It was Elara.She lay twisted in the centre of the courtyard, one hand hanging slack beneath her, the other scored with smoke. Her shard glimmered with a dark, soft light at the point it touched her skin, flinching beneath her touch as if trying to struggle to answer, but it could not—like a heart skipping too many beats.And standing over her was a girl. No older than ten. She had pale hair. Obsidian glass eyes shattered at the corners. She wasn’t breathing. Not like a child should. Her breathing was too steady. Too slow. Her skin glowed slightly as though her body were not quite her own. And around her neck was a shard.Not Elara
Jasmine’s POV~What struck me initially was the sky. It hung below me, not above. A spiraling of stars, spreading away under my feet like a mirror folded inside out. The ground was spongy, but when I peered at it, I could see threads of rune glowing softly beneath the earth-like veins beneath the skin. This wasn’t a place. It was an idea. A memory.I stood and turned slowly, scared of breathing too hard. The silence here wasn’t empty. It was thick. Holding its breath. Then I saw him. A shape loomed a few paces ahead, towering and motionless, enshrouded in shadows. He was like a man — but not quite. His arms are too long, his eyes are too pale. There were no runes on his skin. They floated around him. Orbiting like moons. Runes I didn’t recognize. And beside him…The wolf. Its eyes bore into mine the instant I laid eyes on it. “Jasmine Vale,” the man said.My throat tightened. “Kaelen?” The figure nodded once. “Last of the first. Born of the source. Unmade by betrayal.”“And you’re awa
Jasmine’s POV~The portal sparked with golden lightning, and light arched down to the broken floor. The figure was right across, but it did not step across. Not yet. Her robes were the color of parchment, with symbols stitched into the edges that I couldn’t read. She had her hair braided to her scalp, and golden eyes hardened, ageless. “You brought the key,” she said once more.I didn’t speak. No one did. The children, even, who had been weapons mere moments ago, were fixed to the stone. Elara moved to me, cowering by my side, the shard still glowing dully upon her collarbone.“Who are you?” she asked carefully.The woman tilted her head. “A warden. Of a different kind.”Damien frowned. “Does that mean something to us?”“No,” she said simply. “But what you are is something to me.” Now she moved forward, one foot beyond the gateway. The magic didn’t react. If anything, it was wider, inviting her.“You have activated the final deterrent of the crown. The Vault was always more than a roo
Elara’s POV~I hadn’t known I was bleeding until I looked down and saw the smear across my palm. The edge of the wall rune had cut me as we’d fallen. But I didn’t feel it. I felt nothing but Caspian’s yell.“Get him back!” Jasmine called out, pushing against the spinning children. “He’s not one of them!”But they weren’t listening. The boy who pinned Caspian to the ground held a sharp object, a rune blade, black with lines of burnt runes on either side. She wasn’t older than ten. But her eyes were calm. Still. As if Vira had sucked the terror out of her and replaced it with submission. Lyra jerked herself forward, but the floor twisted — tiles bending themselves into shapes, ancient arrows flaring to life. Her magic sizzled harmlessly at the child.“She’s under manipulation,” Lyra snarled. “The stones are talking to her now.”“Then we tear them up,” Damien spat out. He pulled his sword, splitting the runes, thus loosening the grip of the trap. I groaned wearily, having barely regained