Almost pained.
And I knew, without needing it said, that this was not how he had intended our time together to end. But whatever waited beyond that door mattered.
So, I watched him go, the door closing behind him as Torin took his place outside, and for a moment I just sat there. The silence pressing in as the reality of everything settled uneasily beneath my skin.
Then I moved.
The dress I had worn lay in ruined strips across the floor, barely recognizable now as anything other than torn fabric. Which forced me to abandon it without hesitation as I reached instead for the clothes I had arrived in. My movements were quick, almost frantic, as I shoved my feet into my sneakers and dragged my hoodie over my shoulders, zipping it up just as I reached the door.
Torin was already waiting.
He didn’t say anything, only gave a short nod before turning and leading the way down the hallway. His stride purposeful, the tension in him unmistakable now that I was close enough to feel it.
And then I heard it.
Voices.
Low, urgent ones.
The door ahead opened before we reached it and the moment, I stepped inside…
Everything else fell away.
Because the first thing I saw… Was her.
The one Torin had called Iridessa was lying rigid across the bed, her body unnaturally still. Her posture was all wrong in a way that made something cold crawl up my spine. As though she had been caught mid-movement and frozen there. Her back arched slightly, her neck drawn taut, her mouth parted in what looked like the remnants of a scream that had never fully escaped.
Yet that wasn’t the most unsettling part. No, the most haunting part was…her eyes were open.
Wide open and locked on something that looked far too close to terror. But it wasn’t just that. It was what lay beneath her skin. Thin, branching veins of something dark and unnatural spread across her throat and down her arms. A map of glowing lines that pulsed with a sickened violet hue. Like some supernatural poison that had taken root and was slowly consuming her from the inside out. The color throbbed faintly, alive in a way that made it impossible to mistake for anything natural.
She looked like a soldier even now, dressed in black tactical gear that clung to her frame, weapons still strapped to her thighs. As though she had been ready for a fight right up until the moment she had been taken.
And whatever had done this to her…
Hadn’t given her the chance to react.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, the words slipping out under my breath before I could stop them.
“She was attacked,” Torin answered quietly from beside me, his voice tight and controlled in a way that suggested it was taking everything he had to keep it that way.
Wye didn’t look at me.
His focus was entirely on her, one hand hovering just above her body as a faint green glow began to gather beneath his palm. His power seeping outward in slow waves as though searching, probing, trying to understand what he was dealing with.
And then he stilled as recognition flickered in his hard gaze.
“This isn’t poison,” he said slowly, his voice darkening.
“It’s a binding curse… a vessel construct.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Maledicta vas,” he whispered, the words heavy and ancient. Making me ask Torin in hushed tones,
“What does that mean?”
“It’s Latin for, Cursed Vessel,” he replied softly before walking passed me to join Wye, now standing at the other side of the bed.
