I draw a dagger from my boot, prepared for close-quarters fighting, and take the front, forever her shield.
My boots press against the ancient floors, every step an intrusion on the only thing Nymeris knows: peace. These hallsknow the hush and debate of scholars, not the thunder of boots or the rasp of steel, and it feels sacrilegious to be bringing both.
But it won’t stop me.
Elyssara’s breath hums rhythmically at my back, and the sound steadies me. I can feel her through the tether—focused, alert, but her fear slices through the fragile hold she keeps on her attention.
Beyond the hum of her breath, I can hear something else—soft, faint, almost imperceptible.
Do you hear that?I ask down the tether.That humming?
Elyssara’s breath ceases, her body stilling instantly. Closing her eyes, she strains to hear.
Crackling, almost. Her voice floats on the tether, and I hear the soft clatter of her shoes hitting the stone floors, her bare feet more practical.
We step with practiced silence, the kind of movement reserved for predators, stalking past tapestries the hue of crimson blood, and paintings of renowned scholars.
Light flares through the sky, visible only through a slit in the curtains, the crackling growing louder, more prominent.
“Seren,” Elyssara breathes, her footfalls growing heavier, clumsier, desperate to reach her.
“Breathe, Duskae. We’re almost there. We need to be strategic. Panic will make us reckless,” I try to soothe, though I can’t strip the command from my tone.
But she urges on, clamoring to get past me. We round a corner, the crackling hum growing more insistent.
But in front of heavy oak doors banded with iron, is Teddy, his face pressed against the wood, straining to listen.Of course he got here first.
“Why aren’t you out there?” Elyssara snaps, poking an accusatory finger into his chest, and pointing to the balcony that extends from the castle behind the oak door.
But he doesn’t react.
He simply raises a hand, gesturing her to stop. “The old bat is teaching Seren how to open a Gateway,” he growls. “Listen.”
Teddy’s hand rests on the latch, his bronze eyes hard.
“Watch,” he breathes, and draws it open just enough for us to see.
The balcony blazes to life; a circle marked on the floor in blood and salt, candles guttering around its edges. At the center, Mavyrn moves with the surety of a woman who bends the world to her will. Beside her, Seren mirrors the motions, sweat beading at her brow, hands trembling, blood dripping from her fingertips.
Before them, the air itself quivers. A rift. A half-formed Gateway. It flickers between nothingness and a world beyond, golden light cleaving through the night sky.
“Breathe slower,” Mavyrn instructs, voice soft but edged. “The world hums with threads, Seren. Witches listen.”
“I can’t— I can’t hear anything,” Seren panics, her forehead slick with sweat, and her face twisted into desperate fear.
“Draw more threads to your being. Draw it from anywhere—magic is not reserved for the chosen. It’sgivento them. But us?We take it. From the oceans, the mountains, the trees, the plants, the Stars themselves. It’s all alive. All magic. Use it. Channel it towards the Gateway. That is what you are, Seren. It’swhoyou are—a conduit. A binder. A bridge—between worlds, people, places, things.”
“I don’t know how!” she cries, blood-stained hands going slack at her sides, disheartened.
Teddy looks as if he’s about to burst through the doors and plunge an axe through the old woman, but I grip his arm. “Wait,” I order gently, and reluctantly, he nods.
Because if Seren can open Gateways, it changes everything.
Mavyrn’s eyes bore into Seren, possessed and unmistakable. “You do, child. It’s who you are. The magic calls to you—that’s why you hear it. That’s why it allows you to touch it. It knows you, and you, it.”
She’s known about Seren this entire fucking time.
My jaw clenches, a furious rage taking form inside my chest. Fucking Mavyrn and her games—forever pulling strings of her own choosing. A puppet master of meddling. My father trusted her. He pulled her close inside his innermost circle of confidantes, but why? I have no fucking idea.
