“Once across, follow the path of bones. Only the bones.” A bead of sweat rolls down his temple, despite the chamber’s chill.
“You’re scaring me.” The words slip out before I can stop them. Because how did he suddenly go from the steady calmness he had while he held me through the soul fire trial to whateverthisis?
His eyes focus on mine, and the haunted look cracks just enough to show genuine fear underneath. “I’m sorry. I just—“ He takes a steadying breath. “I need you to be prepared.”
The desperation in his voice makes my throat tight. “Thank you,” I say, and from there, he tells me everything else I have to do.
He makes me repeat his instructions back to him until I could recite them in my sleep. After he finally nods his approval, I take a shaky breath, trying to convince myself I’m ready for this insanity.
“I’ve got this,” I finally say, definitely more to myself than to him. “After all, I survived the soul fire. How much worse can the Underworld be?”
He doesn’t smile. If anything, he looks more worried, his skin taking on an almost gray tinge. It’s like watching someone slowly unravel, thread by thread, and I don’t like it one bit.
“Are you okay?” I study him closer. “You look?—”
“Drink.” He steps back, gesturing to the bowl. “Before you lose your nerve.”
But I’m not worried about my nerve anymore. I’m worried about him. About the way his hands shake as he pulls away from me. About the exhaustion that seems to be drowning him from the inside out.
“Please, Jade.” The raw emotion in his voice stops me cold.
Whatever this is costing him, he needs me to do this. Right now. No more questions, no more delays. And after everything we’ve been through together, after he held me through that soul fire, after he’s saved my life more times than I can count, I can’t let him down.
So, I pick up the bowl. The water is heavier than it should be, dense with magic that makes my arms ache just from holding it.
“See you on the other side,” I say, trying for brave and probably landing somewhere around terrified.
“I’ll be here,” he promises, and something in his eyes breaks my heart. “I won’t leave you. Not for a second.”
“I trust you.” I nod, raise the bowl to my lips, and drink.
The world tilts, spins, and dissolves, and then I’m standing in a gray wasteland under a starless sky. There’s no transition, and no falling. I’m just suddenly here, my body whole, but wrong.
The ground beneath my feet is ash that shifts with each step, and the air tastes like dust and bones. In the distance, a garden glows with a sickly light that hurts to look at directly. Withered flowers twist toward a sky that doesn’t exist, the only break in the endless gray.
Between me and that garden flows a river of shadows. It’s wide, dark, and moving with the slow certainty of something that has always been and will always be.
“Jade. Turn back now.” Logan’s voice drifts from the river. “It’s too dangerous. You don’t understand what you’re risking.”
My feet freeze. Because that’s definitely Logan. The same voice that counted me through soul fire, that promised to keep me safe through this fourth and final trial.
“You can still leave,” he continues, and I can almost see him in the shadows, reaching for me, promising to hold me steady. “Just turn around. Walk away. I’ll find another way to help you. I’ll always help you. You trust me, don’t you?”
Every muscle in my body wants to obey. To turn back, find the way out, and return to where Logan’s guarding my body.
But his words from earlier echo in my memory:No matter who you see and what you hear, don’t listen. Don’t look. Just keep moving toward the edge of the river.
So, I force one foot forward. Then another. And another.
Each step feels like betrayal.
“Jade, sweetie, what are you doing?” My mother’s voice joins Logan’s, crisp and disappointed. “This isn’t what we raised you for. Come home. We’ll figure out Yale. We’ll figure out everything. We always do.”
My teeth clench so hard my jaw aches.
Not real. Not real. Not real.
“You’re being stupid again.” Chase’s voice now, lazy and dismissive. “Just like with the college applications. You never think things through. You never actually cared about your future. You don’t have it in you to pass this trial. You never have, and you never will.”
