“Callum.” Kieran takes a step forward — just one — like he can’t help himself.
I grab his wrist.
He freezes. Turns to look at me with eyes that are wet, furious, terrified.
I don’t let go.
Callum straightens slowly, his laughter dying into something worse — a soft, broken humming.
“Kieran, Kieran, Kieran,” he murmurs. “Always so loyal. Always sodevoted.” His voice cracks. Breaks. Reforms into something sharper. “You left me there. You LEFT me. Andhefound me instead.” His grin stretches wrong. “The one behind the Gate. The hunger. Hesavedme.”
Finnick is doing jagged somersaults near my shoulder, mirroring the chaos radiating off Callum.
“Who?” Kieran’s voice is barely recognizable. “Callum, who found you?”
Callum’s grin returns, wrong and stretched.
“The God is coming,” he whispers. “The Gate is waking. And you — all of you — you have no idea what’s waiting.” He laughs again, softer this time. “No idea what he’s going to do when it opens.”
“Who?” I demand. “Alekir?”
Callum’s eyes slide to me, and something shifts in his expression. Something almost like recognition.
“Your unnatural shadows,” he breathes. “Your hungry little monsters. Do you think you can stop any of this?”
His head twitches. His eyes unfocus.
“The Valkyrie feeds the Gate… the Gate feeds the God… the God devours the broken one…” He trails off, muttering to himself, then suddenly refocuses with frightening clarity. “He sees everything. He knows everything. He’s been inside my head for so long I can’t remember what it felt like before.”
His voice drops to a whisper.
“It’shungry, little Valkyrie. And you’re exactly what it wants.”
“Enough.” Torric’s voice cuts through the tension like a blade. “I’m done listening to this.”
He steps forward, flames flickering at his fingertips, and I see it — the moment he’s about to cross the line.
“NO.” Kieran’s voice cracks like a whip. He tears forward, putting himself between Callum and Torric. “You don’t touch him.”
Torric stops. His flames don’t die, but they don’t advance either.
“Kieran—” Aspen’s voice is sharp with worry. “He’s compromised. We don’t know what he’ll do.”
“I don’t care.”
“He betrayed you,” Finn says quietly, looking at Kieran. “And her. And all of us.”
“I know what he did.” Kieran’s hands are shaking. “I know. But he’s not — he’s not himself. Can’t you see that?”
The group falls silent.
Callum giggles softly in the background, swaying on his feet. “The broken ones always see clearest… the broken ones always burn first…”
Patricia’s notebook has gone dark, like even she can’t bear to record this.
Darian speaks quietly. “Whatever Alekir did to him… it’s still there. I can feel it. The feeling is…” He swallows. “Familiar. Not him — just the way it moves.”
Callum’s head snaps toward Darian again. “The broken one,” he whispers. “The broken one shines brightest before he burns.”
