Then he pulses.
The vision hits me like a punch to the chest.
I see myself in the cell. Forehead pressed against cold stone. Alenya’s key burning in my palm. My shadow magic surging with victory as I chose fear over hope. Chose to forget her eyes.
The shame of it nearly brings me to my knees.
“I know,” I whisper. “I know what I did.”
Walter pulses again.
A new vision. Different.
Gates. Massive. Ancient. Stone carved with symbols I don’t recognize. Six points of light arranged in a perfect pattern, power flowing between them like rivers of starfire. At the center, a seal. Something stirring behind it. Waiting.
My breath catches.
“What does it mean?” I ask, but Walter just bobs serenely, completely unfazed by my confusion.
He drifts closer, brushes against my hand — the touch feels like sunshine and laughter, just like before — and then floats away into the darkness.
I stand alone in the fading garden, the last of the lights winking out around me.
I remember the color of her eyes.
Violet. Always violet.
I’m not that man in the cell anymore. I don’t have to be.
I don’t have to forget.
Because maybe tonight was the beginning of forever.
Chapter 20
Kieran
I wake before dawn.
Not because I’m rested. Because I can’t sleep.
The house is quiet around me, the others lost in whatever dreams they’ve earned. I lie still for a long moment, staring at the ceiling, letting the silence press against my chest.
My thoughts won’t settle.
Kaia’s steadiness last night. The way she spoke to Elda like an equal. The way she didn’t flinch when Seren’s name came up.
Torric’s hand on her back. His kiss to her temple before he let her walk away with Darian.
Darian’s nervous energy. The garden I helped him prepare. The lights blooming as they rounded the corner together.
…Not my finest habit.
Finn’s silence at dinner. The grief he’s burying so deep I’m not sure even he knows it’s there anymore.
Malrik’s eyes tracking everything, already ten steps ahead.
And Sorrow’s Keep, waiting at the end of this road like a door I’m not sure any of us are ready to open.
