It burns to admit out loud.
Because it makes it real.
Because it means I can’t pretend it’s just circumstance or magic or fate.
I chose to stay.
I chose him.
Even knowing what he is. What he’s capable of.
Even knowing this place might devour me piece by piece and spit out something unrecognizable.
Even though I know he could break me.
And worse—I think I’d let him.
Kael tilts his head. “So you’re aware of the cost.”
“I am.”
“And you still stay.”
“I do.”
The silence that follows is heavy. Searing.
Alaric presses his mouth into a line so thin it could cut glass.
“Well, then I hope you’re as brave as you sound, Lady Delia.”
I meet his gaze and nod once. “Me too.”
Because if I’m not—I won’t just lose myself.
I’ll lose him, too.
And I’m not sure I’d survive either.
Chapter 13
Thorne
The Ember Vein, The Broken Plains
The tunnels breathe.
That is the first thing I recognize as we descend—heat pulsing through the stone, not steadily but in waves, like something alive beneath our feet.
It has been many cycles since I last visited, but still I remember.
The air is thick, molten-warm, pulsing with a rhythm that does not belong to the earth alone.
It belongs to The Ember Vein.
Deeper still. Always deeper.
The black earth here is veined with molten rock, glowing like dying embers. It runs through the tunnel walls in crimson and gold and copper streaks, pulsing in time with the heartbeat of the land.
