“The Berserker twins.” Her eyes land on Torric, then me. “Fire and ice. How poetic. Howtragic— branded by your own father, forced into power you never asked for. Does it still hurt? The runes?”
Torric’s flames flare higher. I put a hand on his arm — not to stop him, just to steady him.
“The Shadow Prince.” She turns to Malrik. “Playing at leadership while your kingdom crumbles. Your father would be so disappointed. Oh wait — he’s dead, isn’t he? Such a shame.”
Malrik’s shadows writhe, but his expression doesn’t change.
“The Chaos Boy.” Finn gets a pitying look. “Still desperate for approval. Still performing. Still hoping that if you’re funny enough, charming enough,enoughenough, someone will finally choose you first.” She pauses. “How’s that working out?”
Finn’s jaw tightens. His chaos magic sparks erratically.
“The Dragon.” Alenya’s voice drops, almost reverent. “Centuries of power and wisdom, and still you couldn’t protect the one thing you actually care about. How many times has she almost died under your watch, Kieran? How many more until you admit you’re not enough?”
Kieran doesn’t respond. But I feel Kaia’s fury spike through the bond.
“Andyou.” Alenya finally turns to Darian. Her smile goes sharp. Cruel. “The broken one. The traitor. The boy who let himself be used because he was too weak to say no.” She steps closer, ignoring the way his light magic blazes brighter. “I visited you in that cell, remember? After the arena. Gave you a key and a choice.”
Her voice drops, saccharine sweet.
“And youchose, Darian. Chose fear. Chose to crawl back to us like a good little weapon.” She tilts her head. “How does it feel, knowing she trusted you anyway?”
“Don’t.” Darian’s voice is barely human.
“She should have let you die.”
The light around Darian’s hands explodes outward — but Alenya is faster. Her own magic flares, golden and precise, and the blast deflects harmlessly against the cave wall.
“Temper, temper.” She brushes dust from her sleeve. “You’ll need that fire where you’re going.”
Kaia pushes to her feet. Thank gods we dressed her while she was asleep. Her shadows surge around her, Bob and Mouse flanking her like sentinels, the rest of the squad falling into formation.
“We’re not going anywhere with you.”
“Oh, but you are.” Alenya’s smile is triumphant. “You see, the Gate is waiting. The alignment is nearly complete. And Alekir has beensopatient.”
She looks at each of us in turn. Seven bonds. Six bloodlines. One Valkyrie.
“You thought you were hunting Seren and Lira. You thought you were the ones in control.” She laughs — bright and brittle and wrong. “You were never hunting them. You were beingled. Every step. Every choice. Every mile up this mountain.”
My frost spreads across the cave floor. Torric’s heat pushes back against it. My ice knows the truth before I do — we aren’t ready for what’s at the top.
“Well.” Alenya claps her hands together. “This has been fun. But we have somewhere to be.”
She snaps her fingers.
The worldlurches.
One second we’re in the cave — cold stone, dying fire, the smell of smoke and sweat and too many people in too small a space.
The next—
Wind. Biting, brutal wind.
I gasp, lungs seizing against the sudden cold. Not my cold — mountain cold. The kind that kills.
We’re standing on a plateau. Snow whipping around us. The sky above is wrong — too dark, too churning, shot through with veins of sickly green light.
And in front of us…
