A memory flashed in my mind as I did. One that had plagued me for months. A memory of how I’d opened this chamber back when it had been keeping Grimnor and its counterpart,Luminor, safe. I’d let Lorien inside by mistake. He’d stolen so much from me that day—and it had only been the beginning of so many losses to come.
But this time, it would be my own decision.
Not a trick I’d fallen for.
There were only bad options before me now, but maybe there was power in deciding which one I would choose to face.
“I’m growing impatient.” Severin’s words coiled around me like a noose, making it hard to breathe.
Aleks shook his head. Bastian and Thalia were both silently urging me not to give in, their expressions identically desperate and defiant. Phantom’s eyes were trained on the chamber door, his teeth bared, as if he too could sense the poisoned power seeping through it.
Severin’s smile disappeared. He rolled up his sleeves and readjusted his grip on his knife, moving with the same calm grace he had before slaying Orin.
“Just remember, this was your choice, Nova.”
He sliced toward my brother’s throat.
“WAIT!”
At the last possible instant, his hand stopped.
The blade still hovered entirely too close to Bastian, burning with whatever corrupted magic gave it that unsettling glow.
I kept my glare leveled on Severin as my fingers moved over the door, finding the symbols etched into it. The markings turned warm beneath my touch. The ancient Vaeloran connection was soon waking within me, and it took only an instant of concentration to sink fully into that bond, to let the Vaeloran memories imprinted on this door guide my hand’s movements.
Slowly, Severin pulled the knife back to his side.
“Her too,” I ordered, nodding toward Thalia.
I waited until the Order member pulled his sword away from Thalia’s neck before I put my hand more firmly against the markings and continued tracing them. Faint shadows lifted from my wrist, reaching out like extra fingers, tapping and pressing, then sinking into the symbols when they started to glow.
A groan of metal and stone echoed through the corridor as the doors began to move.
Bastian hung his head—whether from relief that his life had been spared, or disappointment in my decision, I didn’t know. Thalia looked furious. Maybe at me. Maybe at everyone. But I didn’t care what they thought. What they wanted. I couldn’t sacrifice them.
I couldn’t watch anyone else I loved die.
Not if there was any chance I could save them.
I looked back to Aleks one last time, and I found him watching me and my shadows as he had so many times before—with a slightly awed expression in his eyes and a hint of a smile curving his lips.
But there was something else in that expression, something as wrong as the bruise-colored magic twisting beneath his skin.
A…hunger, almost.
I couldn’t speak over the lump that had formed in my throat. I could only think the same words over and over, hoping that he might somehow hear them through our battered bond.
You won’t betray me. I know you won’t.
The doors shook before slowly swinging open.
Several Order members immediately moved to enter the chamber, but Severin held up his hand, bringing them all to a halt. He canted his head toward Aleks.
“Take them,” he commanded.
I held my breath.
Aleks didn’t move at first.
