Chapter 155: The Price of Going Back

They moved before the sun had the chance to rise.

Not that light would’ve helped. The valley seemed permanently caught in a dusk that never ended. A stale wind brushed across the ruins as Serena led the group east, hugging the crumbled stone ridges that lined the edge of the cursed terrain.

Caine stood in the distance, still bound. Still motionless. Like a phantom caught in a loop.

But this time, it wasn’t an illusion.

Serena could feel him now—his magic weak, but pulsing. Familiar. Real.

“Three hours out,” Kael said, crouching beside a rock and scanning the cliffs with a spyglass. “No movement near the arch yet. But the runes are growing brighter. I think they’re preparing something.”

“A full Gate opening?” Mira asked.

“Possibly,” Theron said. “And if it is, they’re not just calling soldiers. They’re calling something worse.”

Elias shifted closer to Serena. “We go in, extract Caine, and get out. No heroics.”

Serena gave a tight nod, but her stomach twisted. Everything about this was wrong.

They advanced through narrow passes, careful to stay low, every step sinking into black dust and gravel. When they reached the outer ring of the ritual site, Lyra and Kael peeled off to scout the edges. Mira began tracing quiet symbols into the air—camouflage sigils.

Then they heard it.

A slow, low chant. Dozens of voices murmuring in perfect unison. The sound crawled through the earth.

Gateborn acolytes.

Draped in bone-colored robes, they encircled the platform where Caine hung, chained and unconscious. A dozen at least, all with veils over their faces and silver glyphs stitched into their garments. They didn’t look like warriors. They looked like priests.

Theron swore softly. “That’s a blood-binding circle.”

“They’re using him as a conduit,” Mira whispered. “Trying to open a Gate through him.”

Kael returned from the north ridge. “Found a weak point in their wards. But it’ll collapse the minute we step through.”

Serena exhaled. “Then we hit fast, no stalling. I’ll draw their attention. The rest of you free Caine.”

“No,” Elias said sharply. “That’s suicide.”

“They’re expecting me,” she said. “They want me to hesitate. If I don’t, we’ll buy enough time.”

He grabbed her arm, eyes blazing. “Serena—”

“I’ll be fine,” she lied.

Then she broke away and stepped into the circle’s edge, her magic already humming beneath her skin.

The moment she crossed the threshold, the chanting stopped.

All heads turned.

And a single figure stepped forward from the arch.

Tall. Slender. Wrapped in black robes stitched with silver and blood.

Not Darian.

Darian wasn’t here.

The figure removed their hood.

It was a woman. Pale-skinned, eyes glowing blue-white, hair like flowing snow. She looked ageless—terrifyingly beautiful and absolutely inhuman.

“Serena,” the woman said, voice like cracking glass. “The vessel walks willingly. How disappointing.”

Serena held her ground. “You’re not part of this.”

“But I am. I am the one who first whispered to Darian. I am the echo that shaped the Gate before your kind even knew fear.”

“You’re a myth.”

“I’m your maker.”

Serena’s heart pounded. “Let him go.”

The woman raised a hand.

The air shimmered—and Serena fell to her knees, pain lancing through her ribs.

“I offer no bargains,” the woman hissed. “Only revelations.”

That was when Elias struck.

He burst through the edge of the clearing, blade in hand, slicing down two robed figures before they could react. Kael followed from the north, while Lyra took the south ridge. Mira unleashed a sigil that knocked half the acolytes off their feet.

The Gateborn woman snarled and turned toward Serena—but Serena was already moving.

She launched herself forward, power surging in her hands. Fire lit her veins—pure and golden.

The same power that had burned her in her dream.

She flung it outward, not as a weapon, but as a barrier. It smashed into the circle, breaking the ritual line and sending a pulse through the air that dropped half the priests instantly.

Elias reached Caine.

He sliced the chains free—but as Caine collapsed into his arms, something snapped.

A ripple of magic surged from the man’s chest, knocking Elias back.

Caine’s eyes flew open.

They were silver.

Too silver.

Serena’s breath caught. “No—”

Caine rose slowly. His face was blank.

“I warned you,” he said, voice echoing with another’s. “But you kept coming.”

The Gateborn woman laughed.

“You thought you could save him?” she whispered. “He is the Gate now.”

Caine’s hand rose—and the sky split open.

A second Gate, massive and spiraling with stormlight, began forming overhead. The cliffs cracked, magic ripping upward in chaotic surges. The arch behind them cracked in half as if crushed by an unseen hand.

Kael shouted, “Retreat!”

But it was too late.

Serena grabbed Elias, who was coughing from the blast, and pulled him behind a stone pillar. Mira screamed a ward over them, just in time to deflect a lightning bolt from above.

Caine stepped forward, face unreadable.

But something in him flickered.

His hands trembled. His voice—cracked.

“Run,” he whispered, just once.

Then his face twisted. Something else—something monstrous—began pushing through.

Serena didn’t hesitate.

She threw everything she had at the sky. Light. Heat. Her own fear. The power that had frightened her since the day she was marked.

She screamed.

And the Gate shuddered.

The sky pulsed white.

The Gateborn woman snarled, raising her hands to counter.

But Serena kept going.

The ground split beneath her, but she didn’t fall. Her fire surged upward, slicing through the portal, tearing it at the seams. For a moment—just a moment—she saw something behind the Gate.

A throne of bone.

And herself upon it.

She blinked—and the vision was gone.

The Gate shattered.

The sky snapped closed.

Silence crashed around them.

When Serena collapsed to her knees again, the arch was gone. The woman was gone. The priests were either dead or unconscious.

And Caine… was on the ground, unmoving.

Elias knelt beside him.

“He’s breathing,” he said. “But barely.”

Serena didn’t move. Her arms shook. Her eyes burned.

Kael touched her shoulder. “You destroyed the portal.”

“No,” she said softly. “I just delayed it.”

Mira approached, placing a hand over Caine’s chest. Her brow furrowed.

“There’s something sealed inside him,” she said. “Something not human.”

“Can it be removed?” Elias asked.

“Maybe. But not here. Not alone.”

Serena stood slowly.

“Then we leave this cursed place. Now.”

That night, they camped outside the valley, beneath the stars. Serena sat beside the fire, eyes fixed on Caine’s unconscious form. He looked peaceful now, like the boy she once trained beside.

But that silver still clung to him.

Elias joined her, sitting close but silent.

Serena broke the quiet.

“There’s something inside me. Something that wanted me to destroy that Gate.”

“You didn’t give in.”

“Not yet.”

He took her hand.

“You won’t. Not ever.”

She leaned into him, just for a moment.

But even in the warmth of that moment, she knew:

The war was just beginning.

And the Gate had seen her now.