As we approached, I could see that the doorframe was covered in more carvings—names. Dozens of them. The names of every Vaeloran who had ever entered this place.
And near the top, two that made my breath catch: Lorien Blackvale. Calista Mireth.
Aleks reached out, running a hand over the smooth black door, which had no handle. “How do we open it?”
The answer came not in words but in sensation—the strongest pulse of magic yet. It seemed to hook into my heart and pull. Beside me, Aleks pressed his hand to his chest as if he’d felt the same thing.
But I didn’t know what it wanted from us. Tendrils of our magic continued to rise, drifting forward and swirling chaotically around it, but the door itself never so much as trembled.
“Blood,” Thalia said suddenly. She was examining the wall to the left of the door, where a shallow basin had been carved into the gold plating. Her fingertips traced a faint etched scene above it—a figure standing before the door, their hand outstretched. Drops falling from their fingertips. “I think it requires blood.”
I looked at Aleks. He met my gaze and nodded.
Together, we approached the basin. I gathered shadows into my hand, letting them solidify and shift into a sharp point that I then drew across my other hand. A few drops of blood welled up, dark and hot. Beside me, Aleks did the same with a blade of Light magic, cutting his palm open. I tried not to stare at the light pooling in his hand alongside the crimson, but I couldn’t help noticing the color.
Still the familiar whitish-gold of his Light magic.
For now, at least.
As our blood dripped down, mingling in the stone bowl, I exhaled a soft sigh, some of the tension leaving my shoulders...
Only to jump as the door swung open, revealing a staircase leading down into absolute darkness.
From the depths came a sound like whispering—thousands of voices speaking at once, too low to make out individual words but loud enough to raise goosebumps on my skin.
I couldn’t seem to make myself move.
Zayn found his courage first, stepping forward with his hand on his sword. Courage wasn’t enough, though; the temple rejected him before he’d even taken two steps inside, engulfing him in pressure that nearly made him crumple to his knees. The whispering briefly rose into a high-pitched wail as he stumbled back. Thalia barely managed to catch him before he fell.
“So much for the valiant charge I had planned,” he said with a shaky laugh.
Thalia snorted at this, shoving him back upright. She considered the entrance for a moment before swiftly following our lead with a blood offering, taking out a small knife and whipping it across the heel of her hand.
The drops sizzled and hissed as they landed in the basin. Another wail rose from inside the temple.
Frowning, she tried reaching her hand across the threshold, but jerked it back almost immediately.
“It’s as we expected,” she said, wincing and shaking her hand. “No one is charging into this place except those with Vaeloran blood.” Her gaze trailed to Aleks. “And hopefully those with very deep ties to the Vaelora, too,” she added.
I cautiously stepped closer to the entrance. When I reached over the doorway, the whispers seemed to quiet, as if the spirits inside were drawing back, watching to see what I would do next. I glanced over my shoulder and found that Aleks had taken several steps away from the door. His face was pale, his expression difficult to read.
Zayn went to speak with him while Thalia pulled me aside, her grip gentle but firm.
“Assuming he can make it across the threshold,” she said, low enough that only I could hear her, “are yousureyou want to go in there alone with him?”
I frowned. “He isn’t going to hurt me.”
“That isn’t the only thing I’m worried about.”
I looked back to the waiting stairs. The whispers were getting louder again; I would have sworn I heard my name lifting clearly among them more than once.
“You were listening to Eamon’s warnings, weren’t you?” Thalia asked. “According to legend, the chamber beneath this temple doesn’t just demand you to carve your truths into its walls—it can force you to speak them. Every truth you have can be exposed. You can’t lie here; people have gone mad trying to do so.”
I glanced at Aleks, my stomach twisting into knots.
Every truth you have.
I might end up telling him everything Orin had said. Everything I’d learned alongside my brother and Eamon. Everything I’d been too afraid to say.
