Her stomach rolled.
Rune’s eyes stirred with flame as they looked at her. “Eldrik lived long enough to watch himself be reduced to mere meat and bone yet that had not been enough. I tore out his soul… and destroyed it.”
The severity made Alora sink on the edge of the couch. Her hands shook as she remembered what he had said about the sacredness of a soul. She saw the shadow of regret on Rune’s face as he turned to face the fire.
“My actions begot the Rift in the sky,” he confessed quietly. “It sent a quake through the Realms, and fissures throughevery plane… down to the depths of the Abyss …” His throat compressed with a swallow. “Where Vorak is kept.”
An awful chill sent a scatter of goosebumps over Alora’s shoulders and her heart went cold. She heard the faint echo of a song as she thought of the Ruins in the Midlands.
“You loosened the lock on his cage…” she whispered.
Rune nodded once, his expression tight.
“How do we fix it?” Alora whispered. “Is there a way to seal the Rift?”
Rune fell silent and she looked over at him, seeing the war in his gaze.
“Do we have no hope at all?”
He looked away to the fire. “Vorak was the Darknessbeforethe first light existed. He’s what comesafterdeath. For as there is a creator, there is also a destroyer. And he is your father.”
Alora’s heart pounded in her chest. “He is coming, isn’t he?”
Rune closed his eyes.
“How long do we have?”
“Until the Blood Moon.”
Two months. The one night when the veil between the Realms thins and magic surges.
A cold chill washed over her body.
The first king of the Netherworld was coming, and it would turn the sway of the demon court.
“I care not for their fealty, Alora,” Rune muttered. “When Elyon sealed the Primordials in the Abyss, they became the pillars that hold up the Realms. Should Vorak break free, it will destabilize the balance. Can you imagine what will happen to the world when he frees the others?”
The world will fall.
Alora shuddered.
“We will face him together,” she said, standing. “Even if half of the Dominions pay Vorak fealty, Harbingers follow you and sodo others. Argyle and the Midlands will fight. We will stop him before that happens.” She went to him. “We should return to Karag Dûr and prepare the Legion.”
Rune moved a step back. “You will not do anything,” he said. “You will stay right here.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
He heaved a sharp breath. “I don’t want you involved.”
“I’m already involved. You tell me Vorak is coming to destroy the world, yet you want me to hide away?”
Rune scowled. “You will have nothing to do with this. You will stay here where it is safe, far from Karag Dûr.”
“He is my father.”
“And you are my wife!”
She froze, her chest heaving at his shout.
