MasukAurelia's POVWe found a corner of the ruins where the air was slightly less determined to kill us and collectively decided that was good enough.I dropped against the wall and let it hold me up. My arms had graduated from burning to something past burning that didn't have a good word yet. Across from me, Torin was pressing folded cloth against Rylan's forearm with the focused expression of a man who had done this before and was annoyed about having to do it again."How bad?" I asked, nodding at Rylan's arm."Fine," Rylan said, his jaw set."It needs pressure," Torin said, over him, pressing harder, which made Rylan's jaw go tighter. "It'll close. He's had worse."Kade's men sat in a cluster at the edge of our makeshift shelter, checking weapons, speaking in voices too low to carry. The scarred woman had a cut above her eyebrow she was ignoring with impressive commitment. The broad man with the scarred chin was sharpening his blade like the last hour had been a personal insult he inte
Aurelia's POVKade's route was better than the one we took to drakos last time we were here, significantly better, but none of us chose to say it out loud because he didn't need the satisfaction or ego boost. Not now. The cave path was narrow and dark, but it moved, no doubling back, no dead ends, no moment where we stood in a tunnel arguing about which direction smelled less like death. His torch cut through the dark ahead of him and the rest of us followed on a straight line, the sound of boots on stone and the occasional drip of water the only company.It was quiet, oddly quiet. No creature tracking us from the shadows. Just the cave, doing what caves do."Just by how you move and know that this cave exist, it's clear you've been here," I said, keeping my voice low, watching the way he moved through the dark, unhesitating, his footing certain. "And effectively more than once too""Yes." Kade didn't look back."How many times?" I asked, stepping over a low ridge in the rock floor.
Aurelia's POVThe land got worse every mile and didn't even try to hide it.Blackened grass spread out in wide patches like something had burned it from underneath. Trees stood there stripped down to bones, bark gone, trunks slick with dark slime. We passed two dead animals within an hour of leaving camp, both leaking that black gunk, both surrounded by dirt that had turned the wrong color. My wolf kept stirring in my chest, restless and uneasy. She didn't bother saying anything because it was obvious, this place was rotting.Kade pulled his horse up next to ours sometime mid-morning. He did it smooth and easy, like he just happened to drift over."The last time you were in the ruins," he said. He stared at the road ahead, his voice doing that fake-friendly thing people use when they're actually interrogating you. "What did you find in the main corridor?""Stone," Rylan said. Flat as a board. "Lots of it."Kade's face didn't twitch. "And the residue on the walls? Did you make contact
Aurelia's POVI woke up before the sun even decided to show up.I just lay there for a bit, staring at the ceiling. My stomach was twisting in knots, doing this weird flip thing that wasn't helping anyone. I sat up, threw my legs over the side of the bed, and started getting dressed. I needed to focus on buttons and laces so my brain wouldn't wander to all the bad shit waiting for us.I pulled on a warm shirt. Then a heavier jacket. My boots were broken in finally, so at least they wouldn't chew up my feet today. I slid Kaelen's spare knife into the hidden pocket inside my jacket and pressed my hand against it. Still there. Good.I headed downstairs.Rylan was already at the table. He had his blade out, running his thumb along the edge like the thing had insulted his mother overnight.and he was about to get revenge in a slow and steady pace. I plopped into my chair. "Morning.""You're late," Rylan said. He didn't even look up from the knife."I'm exactly on time." I grabbed a piece
Aurelia's POVBreakfast was bread and cheese and this heavy quiet where all four of us were pretending we weren't waiting for something bad to happen.Rylan was reading. Or at least he was holding something that looked like reading. I noticed his eyes hadn't moved in about ten minutes. Torin was at the window, of course he was, arms crossed, coffee sitting there untouched, probably the same temperature as everything else in this damn house. Kaelen was eating steady and slow, you'd think he was running on autopilot with that motion, like his brain had checked out and his body was just keeping busy so nobody asked questions.I pushed a piece of cheese around my plate and kept my mouth shut."You're not eating," Kaelen said. He didn't even look up."I'm moving it around. That counts.""It doesn't.""Philosophically it does."He looked up at that. His eyes dropped to my plate, then back to me. He didn't say anything, just went back to eating. Somehow that felt worse than if he'd actually
Kade's POVI stood at the window and watched them ride out.Kaelen first, spine straight, unhurried, the kind of man who rode like he'd already decided exactly where this was going before the horse even moved. Rylan hung back a half-length, and even from up here I could read the set of his shoulders, that particular tension of a man who'd agreed to something and was already running disaster scenarios in his head.The gates groaned shut behind them.I tracked the road until it swallowed them whole, until there was nothing left but dust settling."Well," Aldric said, from somewhere behind me. "That happened."I turned. He was still parked in his chair, fingers steepled, his face doing that thing where he looked like he had a queue of opinions lined up and was deciding which one to lead with."They agreed to the truce," I said."They were wary.""Everyone's wary, the point is they still agreed." I crossed to the desk and dropped into my seat. "It's a start."Aldric looked at me with tha
Torin's POV.Sleep did not come.I lay still for a long time and waited for it the way you wait for something you already know is not going to show up. My body was tired. That part was real, the heaviness in my arms and the ache that had settled into my shoulders from a day of holding everything wo
Aurelia's POV.She came to tell me she knows something and is choosing to hold it." I said, "that is not the same as nothing.""It might as well be.""Torin." Kaelen said it once, quietly.Torin stopped. He exhaled hard and moved to the far side of the room.Kaelen's eyes came back to me, steady an
Aurelia's POV.The woods held their silence around us and the dark pressed in from every side.Lyra stood a few feet away, close enough that I could see the tension in her jaw and the way her eyes kept moving to the trees behind her even as she tried to hold still. I looked at her steadily and kep
Aurelia's POV.We reached the mansion as the last of the light left the sky.Nobody said anything when we got inside. Nobody needed to. Aldric's warning was still in the room with us the way a sound continues in the ear after the thing making it has stopped. Tomorrow night may not be so kind. We mo







