Zander tilted his head, eyes scanning the space ahead. “She and Hein broke the dreamscape. Whatever trial that was… they tore it apart. Ripped through the enchantment like it was paper.” His gaze lowered to mine. “We’re at the entrance to the Fae Sanctuary now. At least, I assume we are.”
I turned my head, and my breath caught.
The ground beneath us was moss-laced stone that shimmered with faint threads of silver veins—magic-infused rock, older than anything I’d ever seen. A massive archway loomed ahead, made from twisted blackened tree roots that formed into one seamless structure, covered in ancient glowing glyphs that pulsed softly with life. Beyond it, lush canopies reached toward the skies, heavy with vines, bright flora, and the soft hum of unseen life.
It felt… alive. Not like the way forests lived. This place breathed with memory.
With waiting.
A waterfall poured down one side of a cliff into a crystalline basin, and above it all, nestled into the rock face like it had always belonged, was a circular gate etched with more glyphs, similar to the ones on the map Remy had studied.
“This place doesn’t just welcome visitors,” I whispered. “It chooses them.”
Zander’s arm curled tighter around me, protective and grounding. “It seems it chose you.”
I pushed myself up from the cool, mossy stone, my limbs trembling beneath the weight of drained magic. Zander steadied me with a hand beneath my elbow, but I shook him off gently. I had to do this on my own.
Kaelith’s eyes locked onto mine from where she stood near the tree-lined edge of the sanctuary’s entrance. She didn’t say anything, not aloud, not in my mind.
It’s okay,I tried to send through the bond.
A sharp pain lanced through my skull like lightning cleaving a cliff in two. I gasped and clutched my head.
“Our telepathic connection has been severed,” Riven said from somewhere behind me. “We have to use our outside voices now.”
I gave a shaky nod, my voice a thread of breath. “Got it.”
Kaelith dipped her head slightly but remained still, her eyes moving slowly. Waiting.
“What do we do next?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.
Remy stepped closer, his fingers still stained with lingering magic from the runes he’d activated. “I think this is where you and Zander combine your power. The ward ahead is ancient and woven of both Light and Dark Fae magic. It was made to only open to a bonded force. Stormlight and Dark Fire. Together.”
I glanced at Zander, whose face had gone unreadable—eyes locked on the glowing barrier between the arched roots.
“So we will try this again,” I said.
Zander met my gaze. “Yes. But this time, we do it right.”
We walked toward the pulsing barrier, the magic ahead of us thick enough to taste. Static and starlight on my tongue. My fingers found his, and our magic—Stormlight and Dark Fire—rippled in response.
Lightning sizzled over my skin, bright arcs snapping from my fingertips as Kaelith’s power surged through me. Across from me, Dark Fire rolled over Zander’s arms like a living shadow, curling along his frame and licking the air between us with violet-tinted flame.
When our fingers brushed, the Stormlight and Dark Fire reached for one another—twining, twisting, weaving together in a helix of power that shimmered with impossible light. I felt it in my bones. In the marrow. As if the very foundation of who I was hummed in response to Zander’s magic.
Our combined force struck the ward like a blade to tempered glass.
The barrier pulsed once, an echo of resistance, then shattered with a thunderous crack, raining down shards of glowing blue light that evaporated before they hit the mossy earth.
We stepped forward together.
The moment the last of us crossed the threshold, the ward surged back into place, sealing the sanctuary behind us. I turned in time to see a flash, like heat haze, and then an old man appeared before us.
His hair was long, braided with pale threads of silver and light, and his eyes, gods, they were lavender. Like Alahathrial’s. The resemblance was uncanny, though he looked older, weathered by time and wisdom. Ancient and calm.
He inclined his head, eyes locking on mine.
“Welcome, daughter of Loretha.”
