Mag-log inNobody spoke for several seconds after Lucien's revelation. The silence felt different now. Not uncertainty. Shock. The kind of silence that follows a truth so large it changes the shape of everything around it. The First Anchor didn't create the gates. She closed them. The words echoed through my mind while the black stone gate continued pulsing quietly behind us. Every story I had heard. Every memory of the convergence had shown me. Every conclusion I thought I had reached. All of it suddenly felt incomplete. Or worse carefully edited. I stared at Lucien. "Why would history lie about that?" His expression hardened. "Because the truth terrified people." The answer came too quickly. Like he'd spent years repeating it. Maybe he had. Kael folded his arms. "That's not an explanation." "No," Lucien agreed. "It's not." The silver light beneath the chamber floor brightened faintly before settling again. Then Lucien looked directly at me. "Tell me something." I ha
The chamber felt smaller after Lucien's revelation. Not because anything had physically changed. Because the truth had. The Seven Gates. The First Anchor. The Hollow Order. Every answer we uncovered seemed to split open three new questions beneath it. The black stone gate behind us pulsed again. Slow. Steady. Like the heartbeat of something sleeping beneath the earth. I hated that sound already. It felt alive. And the longer I stood in its presence, the more the connection inside me seemed to respond. Not with fear. Recognition. As if some buried part of my blood remembered this place. I remembered standing here before. The thought made my stomach twist. Lucien was still watching me. Waiting. Patient. Like he knew exactly how overwhelming all of this was. Like he'd already lived through it himself. "You keep saying we don't have much time," I said finally. "Why?" The silver-eyed man didn't answer immediately. Instead, he glanced toward the gate. Toward the a
The moment Lucien said those words, every instinct inside me screamed that something was wrong. Not because he had found me. Because he expected to. As if this moment had been inevitable from the very beginning. The underground chamber fell silent except for the faint hum of the gate behind us. Silver light pulsed beneath the black stone structure, illuminating the ancient symbols carved across the floor. Lucien's silver eyes never left mine. Neither did mine leave him. Because beneath the calm expression and measured voice, I could feel something through the connection. Not hatred. Not fear. Conviction. The kind of conviction that made people dangerous. The kind that made them willing to destroy entire worlds if they believed it served a greater purpose. Kael took another step forward. Subtle. Protective. Placing himself between me and Lucien without fully blocking my view. "You've got five seconds to explain yourself." The threat in his voice was unmistakable. Lu
The heir has finally returned. The whisper slithered through my mind like ice beneath skin. Not loud. Not violent. Worse. Calm. Ancient. Certain. My knees nearly gave out as the connection inside me erupted violently, silver light flashing beneath my skin hard enough to illuminate the underground chamber around us. Kael caught me before I hit the ground. “Aflira!” His voice sounded distant now. Everything sounded distant. Because the moment the gate awakened something deep inside the convergence awakened with it. I could feel it spreading beneath the world like a pulse through buried veins. Sleeping connections stirring. Ancient structures responding. Not fully awake yet. But listening. The black stone gate at the center of the chamber glowed brighter as silver lines slowly spread across its surface like cracks of light beneath obsidian. Cassian took several cautious steps backward. “I really hate that thing.” I barely heard him. The voice returned again. Close
I couldn’t breathe. The vision still burned inside my skull long after it disappeared, leaving behind fragments of silver light and ancient whispers that refused to fade. Thousands of threads. Thousands. Stretching across the world like veins beneath flesh. The sanctum beneath Blackthorn had never been unique. It had only been one part of something buried far deeper than any of us understood. “Aflira.” Kael’s voice cut through the chaos in my head again. This time I managed to focus on him. Barely. His hands were gripping my shoulders firmly now, grounding me against the violent storm of emotions crashing through the connection inside me. “You need to stay with me.” I swallowed hard and nodded once. The training hall slowly came back into focus around us. Cassian stood several feet away watching carefully, his usual sarcasm gone completely now. The folded cloth bearing the Hollow Order symbol still rested on the table beside him like something cursed. M
The storm finally passed sometime after midnight. But the territory never truly settled afterward. Fear moved differently through Blackthorn now. Before, fear had been loud. Chaotic. Easy to recognize. This was quieter. Warriors lowered their voices when speaking near the western grounds. Patrols doubled along every border. No one walked alone anymore. And everywhere I went I could feel eyes following me. Not blame. Concern. Which somehow felt heavier. The Hollow Order. Even the name refused to leave my mind. I stood inside the empty training hall long after everyone else had gone to sleep, staring at the rainwater still dripping slowly from the wooden beams overhead. The connection inside me remained restless. Ever since Serena mentioned the Order, something deep beneath the surface of the convergence had started reacting. Like old memories were trying to wake up. “You’re doing it again.” Kael’s voice broke through the silence behind me. I didn’t turn around. “Doi







