“They stay,” I say. “We go.”
He nods once. Kael exhales slowly, then reaches for his power.
The wards scream again, shuddering through the stone.
Dagan’s presence looms at the end of the hall, the earth around him already shifting.
“Idris is at the Vein,” he says grimly. “Or close enough to taste it.”
My fire surges, answering the call of the mine, of the ore, of the dreams that depend on it.
Of her, above, who believes I can stand between all that darkness and the world.
“We end this today,” I say.
And with that, we move.
Four shadows. Four Demons.
The Lords of Nightfall descend as one into the dark.
For the realm.
For the worlds beyond.
For what is ours to guard—and for the bond that ties us to each other.
Chapter 28
Delia
From The Eyrie to The Ember Vein
The sitting room Alaric gave us doesn’t look like a war is boiling at the edges of the world.
It looks cozy.
The servants have long since cleared away dinner—a hearty roast with vegetable sides I can’t name, but it was delicious and satisfying.
The dark wood table near the fire still carries a faint ghost of roasted meat and spiced wine, but now it’s buried under something far better.
Books.
Stacks and stacks of them.
Leather, vellum, strange metals, covers in colors that don’t exist on Earth.
When Jules first showed me the library—this impossible, spiraling palace of shelves—it nearly broke my brain. Then she waved a hand, muttered something, and the words blurred, reshaped, and snapped into focus.
“It’s an Eyrie charm Alaric taught me,” she’d said, grinning. “Makes the books readable to whoever’s touching them, as long as Alaric anchors it.”
I’m still not over it.
Now the three of us are sunk into overstuffed chairs, each with our own teetering pile.
A fire purrs in the hearth, casting silver-gold light along the stone walls. Soft rugs muffle our footsteps.
Outside, Nightfall’s wind howls around the towers, but in here it’s all crackling fire and whispered pages.
