"And?" Rumi asks.
"He looked like us. Young, scared, surrounded by people he loved." His gaze drops to his own hands. "He was trying to protect them. That's how it started. He built the seven-element system because he thought it would keep his people safe."
The room goes very quiet.
"He was wrong," Harlow adds. "But he wasn't evil. Not at first."
I look down at the child's drawing. Wings made of fire, drawn by a girl who isn't afraid. And somewhere out there, the monster we're going home to fight started out as someone who just wanted to keep the people he loved safe.
"That doesn't change what he's become," Jade says, but his voice is softer than before.
"No," Harlow agrees. "But it might change how we fight him."
12
Skye
We'vebeenpushinghardfor two days straight, sleeping in shifts, eating while we walk, and it's still not fast enough. Ambrose's monitoring contracts pulse with warnings every few hours now, each one darker than the last. Dante's messages have gone from concerned to urgent to desperate. The sanctuary is deteriorating faster than anyone predicted and we are still five days out at this pace.
Harlow stops walking in the middle of the trail. The rest of us almost collide with each other before we register that he'splanted himself in the path, his expression set with the kind of resolve that usually precedes something nobody wants to hear.
"I can get us there faster," he says. "Much faster." Harlow doesn't elaborate until Jade makes an impatient sound. "The death realm exists parallel to the living world. Distance works differently there. What takes five days walking could take minutes if you know the paths."
"You want to take us through death itself," Ambrose says, understanding before the rest of us.
"Not all of us." Harlow's gaze finds mine. "Just Skye. The death realm is hostile to living essence. One person, I can shield. Two, maybe. More than that, and the chances of getting lost increase until they're almost certain."
Jade steps forward, his tail rigid behind him. "You are not taking him into the death realm alone."
"The alternative is arriving in five days to find the sanctuary already gone." Harlow’s voice stays steady as he continues. "Skye is the Praestes. If anyone can assess the corruption and start stabilizing things before the rest of you arrive, it's him."
The argument erupts immediately. I let it run for about thirty seconds before I cut through it. "What are the odds?"
Harlow looks at me directly. "Sixty percent we make it clean. Thirty percent we make it with complications. Ten percent we don't make it back at all."
"Those are terrible odds," Stellan says.
"The odds of Phoenix Sanctuary surviving five more days without intervention are worse."
I look at my mates and then at Harlow, standing steady in the middle of the trail, offering to walk me through death because it's the fastest way to save the people we left behind.
"We do it," I say.
Ambrose doesn't argue. He just pulls out his materials and starts writing, and the fact that he's preparing for the possibility that we don't come back says more than any objection could.
Jade pulls me aside, his fingers gripping my arms hard enough to leave marks. "If you die in there, I will find a way to kill death itself. Do you understand me?"
"I understand."
"Good." He pulls me into a fierce kiss, lingering there for just a moment before letting me go.
Harlow is talking quietly with Rumi a few steps away. I catch the end of it: "I'll anchor you from here," Rumi says. "Whatever you feel pulling you deeper, follow my warmth back."
The others press close, hands on my shoulders, warmth against my back, and then it's just me and Harlow sitting face to face on the ground as he reaches for my hands. "The journey will feel like drowning," he says. "Don't fight it. Just hold onto me and don't let go, no matter what you see."
"I won't let go."
"I know." His fingers tighten around mine, Harlow offering me a tight smile. "Ready?"
