“Ethos.”
The name hangs in the air, foreign and heavy. I watch their faces change—confusion replacing concern.
Stellan goes completely still. “Where did you hear that name?” His voice is carefully controlled, but I catch the edge underneath.
“Who’s Ethos?” Gray asks quietly.
Thane steps into the room, recognition flickering in his silver eyes. “The voice,” he says slowly. “From the Void. That was his name?”
I nod, unable to find words.
“What voice?” Rhett demands, looking between us with growing alarm.
“There was something else there with us,” Thane explains, his voice carefully controlled even as his silver eyes track Stellan’s reaction. “Something that spoke. Tried to…” He stops, jaw tightening as he looks at me. “Something that wants her.”
Stellan’s face drains of color and he takes a sharp step back, like the words themselves are a physical blow. “No,” he breathes, voice raw with something that might be terror. “Not her. He can’t—” He cuts himself off, running a hand through his hair with shaking fingers.
But I can’t answer. Can’t explain how it felt more real than the room around me, or how part of me is already missing the certainty of those chains.
The silence stretches between us, heavy with dread and the lingering feeling of something dark.
And all I can think about is him.
Chapter 30
Rhett
I can’t get the sound of her scream out of my head.
It’s been echoing in my skull for an hour — raw, terrified, squeezing my chest. The way she looked at me with wide eyes, sheets soaked with sweat, black mist pouring off her like fire turned inside out. The way her hands shook when she whispered that name.
Ethos.
My fire answers the memory, heat prickling under my skin like a warning. I should have been faster. Should have reached her before whatever the hell that was finished with her. Should have done something other than stand there useless while she looked at us like we were strangers.
She’s upstairs now. Gray said a bath might help, so he got it ready for her and gave her space. For some reason it makes her absence cut sharper, the betrayal sting worse.
Because that’s what this is, isn’t it? Betrayal. Not just from Thane — his secrets about Phil cut deep enough — but from her. From Bree.
The others look as wrecked as I feel. Jace paces near the window, looking out like he might find answers there. Gray sits rigid in his chair, jaw locked. Wes hovers by the doorway like he wants to bolt, dark eyes tracking the hall. Theo looks haunted, brown eyes distant in that way they get when he’s seeing things the rest of us can’t.
Thane leans against the far wall, silver eyes unreadable. Stellan stands beside him, silent and watchful.
We’re all here, shaken and looking for answers.
“Somebody explain who the hell Ethos is — before I start throwing knives,” Jace snaps, stopping his pacing to glare at the room. His usual humor is gone, replaced by sharp-edged frustration.
All eyes turn to Thane. His silver gaze flicks between us, and for a moment his mask slips completely.
“She heard him,” Thane says quietly. “In the Void. He spoke to her — tried to tempt her with something.” His jaw tightens. “He only spoke to me briefly. I couldn’t hear what he was saying to her, only that she was hearing something. Someone.”
The admission hangs heavy in the air.
“And we didn’t tell you,” he finishes.
Silence stretches, heavy with implication.
“You both knew,” Wes says quietly, his voice cutting like a whip. “And you kept it from us.”
