“I mean she’s gone! Vanished! I’ve checked every room—”
“Where could she have gone?” Gray asks quietly.
“The chamber,” Stellan breathes, cutting me off.
Something that feels a lot like dread creeps up my spine.
“No,” Jace says immediately, taking a step back. “She wouldn’t. Not alone. Not without—”
“She would,” Thane says grimly. “If she thought it was her choice to make.”
Stellan is already moving toward the corridor that leads deeper into the sanctuary. “She shouldn’t do it alone. If she’s taking the Oath, we have to stop her.”
We follow him toward the back door that leads out to the garden—the path that winds deeper into the sanctuary grounds, toward the chamber. We move like a pack of wolves chasing the scent of our missing heart. Behind me, Theo’s breathing changes like he’s trying to force a vision. Wes’s footsteps falter once, his hunger clearly gnawing at him. Jace’s knives appear in his hands without him seeming to think about it. Gray and Thane walk behind us, watching for threats just in case.
The journey to the Chamber seems longer than it was yesterday, the shadows deeper. Almost like the Sanctuary grounds are trying to prevent us from getting there.
When we finally reach the chamber entrance, the door stands open.
Silver light spills out from within, brighter than it’s ever been. But there’s something else threading through it now—something darker that makes my fire magic recoil.
“Bree,” I whisper.
We descend the stairs in single file, and I can feel the exact moment each of them sees her.
She stands before the largest mirror in the center ring, one hand pressed flat against the glass. Light radiates from the point of contact. Silver shot through with black, like ink bleeding through water. The kind we’ve become accustomed to since Bree’s visit to the Void.
As we watch her Ether swirls around her feet, and it becomes completely inverted—black mist threaded with silver. It moves differently too, more controlled, more purposeful.
I pull my focus away from the unsettling Ether and focus on Bree. She looks different. She still looks like the Bree I know, but there’s something about the way she holds herself. Straighter. More certain. Like someone who’s never doubted her place in the world.
“Bree,” I call out, but she doesn’t turn.
Her reflection in the mirror flinches at something unseen just for a moment, but when I blink, it’s gone.
Stellan makes a sound behind me—low, sharp, like recognition he doesn’t want to name.
“What?” I demand, but he’s already moving down the remaining stairs.
“Bree,” Thane calls, his voice carrying command I’ve never heard before. “Step away from the mirror. Now.”
That gets her attention. She turns, and when her eyes meet mine, something in my chest feels uneasy.
They’re still green, still beautiful, but they hold confidence I’ve never seen before, never thought I’d see on Bree.
“You came,” she says, and her voice sounds pleased rather than defensive. “Good. You should see this.”
“See what?” Gray asks quietly. He’s appeared beside me without my noticing, fully dressed and alert.
She turns back to the mirror, pressing both hands against the glass now. The light flares brighter, and her reflection moves completely out of sync with her actual movements.
“The completion,” she says simply. “The choice I was always meant to make.”
Flames dance under my skin, wild and restless. She stands in front of the mirror like she’s finally found calm, and it terrifies me.
The black Ether around her feet pulses once, like a heartbeat, and every instinct I have screams that something isn’t right.
The woman touching the mirror might look like Bree, might sound like Bree.
