Freya's povThe light thinned, It unravel slowly, like mist peeling away from the surface of water, leaving the air raw and cold in its absence.My feet touched stone again. My body remembered weight. My lungs remembered breath.But I was not the same.I had a body but it didn’t quite feel like mine anymore. The leyline still burned in my blood, but it wasn’t a wound now. It was... direction. Motion. A current pulling me forward even when I stood still.I opened my eyes. Velza gasped.Kye stumbled backward, his mouth open, his hands raised instinctively—as if to shield himself from something too bright.Only Logan didn’t flinch.He just stared, sword still at his side, jaw clenched."Freya?" Velza's voice cracked like dry stone. "Is that you?"I nodded. "Yes."It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the whole truth either.The Beacon behind me hummed, alive now, awake for the first time in centuries. I could feel Finnick in every pulse. His presence. His steadiness. His choice.They couldn’t f
Finnick's pov I thought I’d become part of the stone but I was wrong.Stone doesn’t remember. I did.I remembered the way Freya’s hand fit in mine. The weight of her, soft and strong, the way she held back the fire not with power, but with will. I remembered every breath that led us here — the way Logan carried guilt like a sword strapped to his back, the way Velza never blinked when she was afraid, the way Kye always knew when to say nothing at all.And I remembered my own fear. That I’d be useless in the end.That all I could offer was loyalty, a body to break in place of someone who mattered more.But now I was the Beacon and the Beacon mattered.Even here, even in this in-between place where space had no shape and time had no spine. I could feel the world above me. Cracked, strained, waiting. The leyline was alive now, burning under the surface like a pulse under skin and it was hungry.It wanted more."They’re waking."Freya’s voice again, not distant this time, but inside me,
Finnick's povThe moment we stepped forward, the light changed.It wasn’t bright. Not like fire. Not like the glow that lived beneath Freya’s skin. It was softer. Pale blue. Almost silver. Like moonlight filtered through frost.The marks on the walls pulsed once, then faded, as if acknowledging us and then stepping back. The Beacon didn’t need to speak. It was listening.The others stood still behind us. Velza near the threshold, her eyes wide and wary. Kye with his book half-open, lips moving but no words coming out. Logan stood with one hand resting on the hilt of his blade, unreadable.I kept my hand in Freya’s.The ground shifted again. Not movement. More like pressure. Like something watching us had leaned in closer.Freya’s glow started to pulse again. Just beneath her skin. Barely there, but steady.She didn’t flinch.She raised her other hand and placed it against the ruined stone at the center of the Beacon. Her fingers touched blackened rock, but I saw something shift in her
Finnick's pov We left before the sun rose. The ground still remembered the heat from the crater. Even the birds stayed quiet. No one said much. After everything, silence felt easier than words.Freya walked beside me, her pace steady, gaze sharp. The glow beneath her skin hadn’t gone away. If anything, it had settled deeper, like it belonged there now. Like she was finally becoming something the leyline had been waiting for.She didn’t look afraid. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.Velza was behind us, her limp worse than before. She didn’t ask for help. She never would. But she leaned harder on her staff, and the way she looked at Freya—like she expected her to catch fire again at any second—made it clear we were all still waiting for something to break.Kye walked in silence, staring at a piece of bark like it held the secrets of the stars. It didn’t, but that never stopped him. He said the constellations were out of order last night. I believed him.Logan took up the rear. Quie
Finnick's pov We left before the sun rose. The ground still remembered the heat from the crater. Even the birds stayed quiet.No one said much. After everything, silence felt easier than words.Freya walked beside me, her pace steady, gaze sharp. The glow beneath her skin hadn’t gone away. If anything, it had settled deeper, like it belonged there now. Like she was finally becoming something the leyline had been waiting for.She didn’t look afraid. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.Velza was behind us, her limp worse than before. She didn’t ask for help. She never would. But she leaned harder on her staff, and the way she looked at Freya—like she expected her to catch fire again at any second—made it clear we were all still waiting for something to break.Kye walked in silence, staring at a piece of bark like it held the secrets of the stars. It didn’t, but that never stopped him. He said the constellations were out of order last night. I believed him.Logan took up the rear. Quie
Finnick's pov We left at first light.Didn’t need to talk about it. We all felt it like the pressure in the air, the pull of something waiting just ahead.The leyline was different now. Not just a thread under our feet. It pulsed slow and deep—like it was breathing. Freya led. She hadn’t said much since the night of the mirror-things. None of us had, but with her, the silence felt heavier as if every word unspoken held weight.She moved like someone who already knew where she was going. Not because she’d seen a map but because something inside her was pointing the way.And I followed, just to be there because if she was going into the dark, I wasn’t about to let her walk in alone.Kye walked in silence, eyes scanning the sky even though his notes were gone. I didn’t need to ask, he was still trying to find sense in the stars. Still chasing a pattern that didn’t want to be caught.Velza limped behind, more tired than I’d ever seen her. She didn’t complain. She never did. But she didn