Metal flooring. Cold. A viewing pane stretching wide before her. From it, she saw a world below, splintering apart like glass under pressure. Shockwaves rippled across continents. Cities disintegrated in a wash of fire and light. The atmosphere itself peeled away in ribbons. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came. No sound. No breath. Just the silent implosion of a planet.
She clutched at Fenn, nails digging into his chest, while Kaelith’s arms wrapped tightly around her front, anchoring her against the storm raging through her mind. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the memory snapped shut.
She gasped like she’d been dragged underwater, scraping at her scalp with both hands as if she could dig the images out again. Sheknewit mattered, but the Weaving shoved the memories back into their box, locking them away where she couldn’t reach.
“Rynna. We’re here. You’re safe.” Kaelith’s voice came low against her ear.
“Kae…” The sob escaped her as she wiped the wetness from her cheeks, forcing herself upright even as her legs trembled.
Get it together, Rynna.She tried to calm the pounding in her ribs.
“What was that?” Fenn asked, hands steadying her at her waist.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t—” Her fists clenched. “The Weaving won’t let me remember.”
The dread clung to her like smoke, spinning in the corners of her thoughts, close enough to taste, but just out of reach. She didn’t have a name for what they faced, but deep down, sheknewshe’d stood against it before.
But why would the Weaving hide it from her?
Rynna exhaled, forcing the last tremor from her limbs.
“Whatever it is, we’ll face it together.” Fenn’s hand slid down her arm in a brief squeeze before he stepped past her toward the nearest wall. “These look like stories from the ancient bloodlines,” he said, studying the carvings. “And of what came before.”
Kaelith looked at Rynna, searching. She nodded once, and only then did his attention move to the wall, reaching toward one of the figures mid-shift.
“Of what came before, and how it ended,” he murmured.
“When the enemy came, bringing the Source with it,” Rynna finally joined them, following Kaelith’s fingers.
Then, a sudden lurch made the floor rumble under them.
“Move!” Fenn barked, grabbing Rynna and tossing her to the side.
The floor where she'd been standing split open as serrated stone blades burst upward with enough force to break bone. Beside them, Kaelith twisted sideways with inhuman speed, narrowly avoiding a second trap of blades scything through the air.
“Defenses.” Kaelith’s irises began to slit. “This place doesn’t want us here unless we can prove we belong. Without the Source.”
Rynna scrambled to her feet, only for a second wave of movement to knock her sideways. The wall on her right twisted open like a maw, and a gout of pale blue fire flared toward her. She didn’t have time to dodge or blink, and pain flashed bright across her side before she hit the ground.
“Rynna!” Fenn was beside her in seconds, his body halfway shifted—teeth elongating, hands gnarled into claws.
“I’m fine,” she lied, pushing herself upright, but her right arm buckled beneath her.
She looked down and choked. The flesh along her forearm had melted away in slick, glistening sheets. Muscle hung in ragged strands, sinew exposed, blood weeping slow and dark from a mess of torn tissue and charred skin.
“Oh fuck.” The words scraped out of her before she could bite them back, and her vision swam as the world tilted again.
She’d been burned before. But not like this. That fire hadn’t been fire. Not truly. It clung too long. Sank too deep. Whatever it was, it was meant toconsume.
Kaelith dropped beside her, one knee on the ground. His hand hovered just above the mangled mess of her arm, fingers twitching like he wanted to touch but didn’t dare. His eyes flicked between the wound and Fenn.
“You need to keep going,” Rynna ground out, teeth grinding as she tried to push herself upright again. “It’ll heal.”
She flexed her fingers. Or tried to. But they didn’t move. There was just a dull, dead weight hanging from what remained of her forearm.
“Eventually. Probably.” Her voice pitched high.
Kaelith didn’t answer. Instead, he shrugged out of his shirt with a tug, the fabric lifting over the hard lines of his torso. Muscles coiled and flexed beneath pale skin where shining black scales rolled like oil just beneath the surface—and for a half-dizzy heartbeat, Rynna couldn’t look away.
