And for the first time, he had reached the final path.
Unable to stand, he crawled to the small opening in the rock wall, disbelief shaking through his frozen body. He didn’t know why that entrance existed, not like any human could get even halfway here without dying. Perhaps she had anticipated his visit one day.
With chest dragging over the frost-coated stones, he closed in on the narrow opening, putting a hand through.
Warmth.
That heat called to him, and desperately, he crawled through the hole, feeling the warmth seep into his frozen skin, thawing him just enough to breathe. Once his torso was inside, he opened his eyes—and found only darkness.
It was vast, endless, and silent. The air vibrated faintly, filled with an unseen pulse that wrapped around him. He could feel thepower beneath the surface of that void. It slithered along his arms, coiling around his chest.
Shoving his whole body through, Thrax finally lay flat, chest facing upward, staring into the darkness that stretched forever.
He knew where he was.
Next to The Crater.
His insides might be frozen, his heartbeat might be faint, his mind might be distant, but he had made it. He was the first man to ever reach The Crater.
He’d expected the moon’s wrath to swallow him whole the moment he arrived, but it only watched silently.
And him?
He was dying.
He couldn’t feel anything. Not his limbs. Not his heartbeat. He’d always wanted to die where it all began—and now, he would.
If only.
As his mind drifted into the dark, one thought clung to the edge of his fading consciousness.
If only everything he had could be taken from him—his powers, his life—and she could be given back.
If only.
It was the first thing he had ever truly begged for.
If only.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
TWINS
It’d been two days.
Amelia and Merton had just come from the cave. It was still shining when they got there. And now, they stood where the sign for The Crater was nailed crookedly into the ground. Though the Soulless Man might have not noticed, they’d trailed after him that night until they reached the signpost.
They hadn’t followed him inside. They couldn’t. They both knew the cold would never let them get far.
So they’d waited instead, watching the night grow thinner and the cold gnaw into their bones, waiting for him to come back. But he never did. When afternoon came, they’d given up and left.
Two days later, they were back, gloved hands tucked deep into their layered sweaters as they stared at the stone-filled terrain stretching endlessly before them.
The Soulless Man wasn’t coming back. They both knew it. He’d probably frozen to death inside.
And as much as curiosity clawed at them, neither had the courage nor the stupidity to follow. They loved themselves a little too much to risk their lives for anyone else’s tragedy.
But Sanora...
