He stepped closer to Seraphina.
"She knows what they're building, how they're doing it, and what they're planning next." He held her gaze, then looked at the others. "Which is more than any of you can say."
"Or," Vex said, desperation making him reckless enough to challenge the Reaper directly, "she's exactly where the enemy wanted her. Inside your court, your most secure location, with access to your defenses and your trust and your?—"
The shadows exploded outward.
Darkness flooded the throne room, rising from floor to ceiling. They pressed against the other Death Lords like hands around their throats, making the threat clear.
The temperature plummeted. Frost crept across the floor, climbing the walls, covering every surface.
The bone walls creaked under the pressure, leaning inward in response to his wrath.
Seraphina's hand tightened on her weapon, but didn't draw. Smart enough to recognize when she was outmatched.
Vex took an involuntary step back. Even Thessa's ethereal presence dimmed.
"Choose your next words carefully." His voice echoed from every shadow in the room. "You're in my realm. Under my protection. And you're questioning my judgment about someone I've claimed."
He pulled the shadows back, muscles tensing as he reined in his power. The darkness settled but didn't disappear.
"You want answers?" He let the question hang. "You want to know who's behind this, how to stop it? Then listen. Because she's the only one who's actually faced the enemy instead of standing in your courts, wondering where your power went."
Seraphina studied him for a long moment. Her eyes moved from him to Brynn, then back, reading the shadows wound possessively through Brynn's bandages, the way his power responded to her presence.
Finally, slowly, she moved her hand away from her weapon.
"Fine." Her voice had lost some of its hostility. "Talk."
Thessa's form solidified slightly. Vex remained by the windows, but his hands unclenched.
Dante turned to Brynn, and pride surged through him at what he saw.
She stood straighter through her exhaustion. Through the pain from her wounds, the burns on her arm, the weight of three Death Lords who'd been ready to blame her. She didn't flinch under their scrutiny.
He gave her a slight nod.
She stepped forward, shoulders back, chin lifted, meeting their gazes.
Her hands shook slightly, but her voice didn’t waver.
"I'm not Caelum's accomplice. But I did trigger the gateway that's stealing your souls. And I need to explain how he trapped me into doing it."
She laid out exactly what had happened. Finding what she thought was Caelum's power grid, attempting to collapse his operation, triggering the trap he'd long been building.
He watched their expressions shift as she spoke. Watched suspicion give way to understanding, then to grudging respect as she outlined the scope of what they were facing.
"You opened it?" Seraphina took a step forward, voice rising. "You're confessing to giving Caelum control of the entire soul-flow?—"
"I was trying to collapse his operation." Brynn held her gaze without flinching. "I found what I thought was his power grid. A way to shut him down, to save?—"
Her eyes flicked toward him for just an instant.
"To save us," she continued. "What I triggered instead was the trap."
"Convenient story," Vex spat, his form wavering. "Caelum sets the perfect trap, you spring it at exactly the right moment?—"
"She was trying to stop him and walked into a trap designed specifically for her." His shadows moved, flowing around Brynn's feet. "A trap that required an architect’s bloodline to activate. That had been corrupted over the ages. She was manipulated. Used."
