“It recognizes you,” Seth says quietly, staring at the entrance that wasn’t there moments before. His voice carries an odd note, almost like relief mixed with fear. “Because you’re one of hers.”
I look at him, surprised by his certainty.
“The way you touched the mirror,” he explains, voice hushed with awe. “The way the ground responded. This place knows you belong to her.”
The words hit something deep in my chest. Something that’s been aching since Bree started avoiding my eyes, since she looked at me with that careful blankness and said“It’s fine, Theo. Really.”
Maybe it’s not fine between us right now. Maybe I did push too hard, overwhelm her when she was already drowning. But this—this ancient place recognizing me, responding to my touch because I’m hers—it means something. It means the connection between us isn’t broken, just… strained.
The pull I’ve been feeling all day intensifies, drawing me toward those spiral steps like a compass needle finding true north. But Seth’s right—we can’t go down there unprepared. And something about theair rising from below makes my skin crawl, like whatever waits in the darkness has been patient for too long.
“We need light,” I say, though every instinct screams at me to descend immediately. “And we need to tell the others.”
Seth nods, but he’s studying the opening with that same intensity I’ve been feeling. “This is it, isn’t it? The real chamber. Where the Ashen Oath actually happens.”
“I think so.” I can barely tear my gaze away from the entrance. “But I also think Bree needs to be the one to go down first.”
“Because it’s hers.”
“Because she’s the only one who can make the choice.” I look at him, weighing my words carefully. Thinking about those two futures I keep seeing, the way they flicker like competing flames. “I think you should be there too. When we tell them. When we come back.”
Seth goes completely still. “You do?”
“You found this place with me. You helped make it possible.” I pause, watching his expression. “And I think… I think she’ll need all of us. Whatever choice she has to make down there.”
Something shifts in his face—surprise, maybe hope, maybe fear. Like he’s hearing an invitation he didn’t expect and isn’t sure he deserves.
I think about the vision again. Seth standing between Bree and danger. Seth offering protection instead of betrayal. The path where he chooses to stand with us instead of against us.
“I think you get to decide that,” I say. “But yes. I think you belong here.”
We stand there for a long moment, staring at the entrance to something that’s been waiting beneath the sanctuary grounds for who knows how long. Waiting for her. Waiting for this moment.
“You felt that,” Seth says finally. Not a question.
I nod, the mirror shard pulsing warm against my ribs—like a heartbeat, like recognition, like acknowledgment of what we’ve found.
“This changes everything,” Seth says quietly. “She’ll want to know.”
“She needs to know.” The words come out with more certainty than I’ve felt in days. “Whatever the others have been protecting her from, whatever they think she’s not ready for—this is hers to decide.”
Seth nods. “So we tell her.”
“We tell her.” I look back toward the sanctuary, toward where Bree is probably still avoiding my eyes, still keeping that careful distance. “And maybe… maybe this will help fix what I broke between us.”
The mirror shard continues to pulse against my skin as we walk back toward the sanctuary, its rhythm matching my heartbeat. The feeling spreads through my chest, certain and grounding—like I’m finally carrying something that matters.
“I’ll tell her,” I say, the words coming easier now. “Tonight. No more waiting for permission from people who think they know what’s best for her.”
“And then?”
I think about Bree’s careful distance, the way she’s been avoiding my eyes since the mirror realm. About how much I want things to go back to the way they were between us. But that’s not what this is about.
“And then she gets to choose what comes next,” I say quietly. “Even if that choice doesn’t include me. Even if she never forgives me for pushing too hard in the mirror realm.”
The words hurt to say, but they’re true. Whatever waits in that chamber below, whatever the Ashen Oath truly means—it’s hers to discover. Her choice to make.
And if bringing her this discovery is the last thing I ever do for her, if it costs me whatever chance I had of earning her trust back—it’s still the right thing to do.
