His hurt is raw. Mine is too. I want to protect her — want to be the one who carries the weight for her — and instead I’m learning she carried this alone.
“Would knowing have changed anything?” Thane asks, calm and sharp. “Would telling you a name have stopped him? Would you rather she carried your fear on top of her own?”
I see red.
Heat lashes through the room. Flames lick under my skin as my fist splinters the chair arm. I stand, chest burning.
“You don’t get to decide for us!” The words tear out of me. “Not you, not her, not anyone. We’re supposed to share this. Protect each other. You kept us out — you made us weak. You made her weak.”
“And where is she now?” I continue, the betrayal cutting. “Hiding upstairs because she wouldn’t trust us enough to tell us what was hunting her. Because she thought we couldn’t handle it.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Thane says sharply. “But you’re proving my point.”
The words hit like a slap. I take a breath, the fire guttering as I realize he’s right. My anger, my hurt - it’s exactly what Bree was trying to protect us from. Protect herself from.
“Ethos isn’t a name you speak lightly,” Stellan says quietly. There’s weight in his voice that makes everyone turn.
“You know him?” Gray asks.
Stellan’s expression darkens. “I ended up there once. The Void.” His voice is barely above a whisper. “By accident. It’s a twisted, insidious place that feeds on your worst impulses.” He takes a breath, heavy with something like shame. “I made a deal with Ethos to make it back.”
The silence that follows is deafening. Everyone stares at Stellan like they’re seeing him for the first time.
“Is he more dangerous to us, to Bree than the Council?” Jace asks, incredulous.
Stellan’s laugh is bitter. “The Council wants control. Ethos wants to remake the realms in his image and make you believe it was your choice.” His eyes find the hall again. “If he’s coming for her, we’re in worse trouble than you realize.”
The words settle like a shroud. Ethos is more than a voice.
“Anyone else have secrets they want to share?” Gray asks, razor-sharp. “Because now seems like a good time to get everything out in the open.”
Silence hangs heavy. Everyone is doing mental math, weighing what they know against what they’ve kept.
Theo runs both hands through his hair. “Actually… there’s something else. Something Seth and I found a while back.”
My blood chills. “What kind of something?”
“Ruins,” Theo says quietly. “Old ones. Hidden in the sanctuary grounds. They responded to my touch — like they were waiting.” He meets my eyes. “There’s a chamber underneath. Stairs that lead down. I found pieces of a mirror at the top of the stairs.”
“Mirrors?” Thane’s voice is flat now, sharp enough to make my skin crawl.
Theo nods. “Broken mirror pieces. Shattered.” His voice gets quieter. “But it felt like Bree. Like power. She needs to see it.”
The room goes dead silent. Even the sanctuary seems to hold its breath.
“You didn’t think to mention this sooner?” Jace asks, deadly quiet.
“I was going to,” Theo snaps, defensive. “But there’s always something — chaos, attacks, crises —” He gestures helplessly.
The heat in my chest gutters, replaced by cold dread. Theo’s right. The betrayal stings, but none of that matters if we lose her.
“It doesn’t matter why he didn’t tell us,” I say, the irony not lost on me. “What matters is we have a place to start looking.”
The anger burns hot and sharp, but deeper than that is something unshakable: I will keep her safe.
Even if she won’t let me.
Even if she didn’t trust me enough to tell me that something’s hunting her.
