I feel Darian go rigid beside me. Feel his shock crash through the bond like a wave — denial, horror, something that might be recognition.
“Brothers,” Alekir says, savoring every syllable. “How perfectly poetic.”
I can’t breathe.
Memories flash — fragments I’d buried so deep I’d forgotten they existed. A boy in the palace halls. Younger than me. Dark-haired. Watching me with eyes that felt familiar even then. My father’s hand on my shoulder, steering me away.Don’t concern yourself with him.
That was Darian.
That was mybrother.
“He was the heir,” Alekir continues, gesturing at me. “You were the spare experiment.” His attention shifts to Darian. “Placed with my followers because your proximity to Malrik completed the circle. Light and Shadow. Royal blood on both sides. The corruption latched onto you so beautifully because you weredesignedfor it.”
Darian makes a sound like he’s been gutted.
His light magic flares — wild, uncontrolled — and he staggers. I catch him without thinking. My shadows wrap around his shoulders, steadying him, anchoring him the same way I anchored Kaia through her panic attack.
I’ve got you. I’ve got you.
“Touching,” Lady Virath observes. “The lost princes, united at last.”
I want to destroy her. Want to let every shadow in Absentia tear her to pieces.
But Kaia’s presence in the bond holds me steady. Her grief. Her fury. Her desperate need for us to survive this.
Not yet. Not yet.
Alekir spreads his arms wide.
“Now. Shall I tell you what happens next?”
He doesn’t wait for an answer.
“The Gate requires six bloodlines. Light. Shadow. Chaos. Elemental. Berserker. Shifter.” He paces before the glowing stone like a professor delivering a lecture. “All connected to a Valkyrie. All bound by magic older than memory. Allaligned.”
The Gate pulses behind him. Brighter. Hungrier.
“Your ancestors sealed the God of Chaos out of fear,” he continues. “They called it protection. Called it duty. Called themselvesheroesfor trapping a force of nature and claiming its purpose as their own.”
His voice turns bitter. Ancient.
“The Valkyries were never meant to guide souls. That was Chaos’s role. The threshold between life and death — that washisdomain. But they feared what they couldn’t control. So they sealed him away and built Absentia on his bones.”
“That’s not—” Kaia starts.
“That isexactlywhat happened.” Alekir rounds on her. “Your bloodline stole the sacred duty. Fractured the cycle. Trapped souls in a realm that should never have existed. And for centuries —centuries— I have worked to correct their arrogance.”
Lady Virath steps forward, her voice ringing across the plateau.
“The Valkyries were thieves,” she says. “Arrogant children playing with forces they didn’t understand. They took what belonged to Chaos and called it righteousness.”
Her gaze finds Kaia.
“Your parents were the worst of them. So convinced of their own virtue. So certain they were protecting the realms.” Her smile is a knife. “I enjoyed watching the light leave their eyes.”
Kaia’s shadowsscream.
Bob lunges — but Kieran catches him, holds him back. Mouse is snarling, growing larger, darkness pooling around his form. Patricia’s notebook is a blaze of furious light.
