The silence that follows isn’t empty. It’s the kind of silence that comes right before something breaks.
“You’ve been spying on me,” Stellan says, voice low and dangerous.
“I’ve been surviving,” Thane counters. “And part of that is knowing when someone in my group is keeping secrets that could get us killed.”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you—”
“Stop.”
The word shears through the ringing in my ears. We all turn to look at Wes.
He’s staring at the ground, arms wrapped around himself like he’s trying to hold his own shape together. His hands are shaking. His jaw ticks.
“I can’t keep the starving saint act,” he says, voice raw. “And I know I’m not the only one barely holding it together.”
His eyes lift, meeting each of ours in turn. “But if Stellan has a way out—if he knows something we don’t—then we need to hear it. Now.”
The truth of it settles over us like ash.
Stellan’s mask cracks.
Not much. Just enough.
I see it in the way his shoulders drop, the way his hands unclench at his sides. The way he looks at Thane and says, voice tight, “You’re an ass.”
“Frequently,” Thane agrees. “Now talk.”
Stellan exhales slowly, like he’s been holding that breath for months.
“I wasn’t talking to the Void,” he says finally. “I was talkingthroughit.”
“Through it to what?” Jace demands.
Stellan’s gaze flicks to me, then away. “To someone who might actually be able to get us out of here.”
Before anyone can respond, the vision slams into me again.
Harder this time. Sharper.
The horseshoe spins in black water, and now I see more—chains attached to darkness. And at the far edge of my vision, something moves. Something massive and wrong andalive.
Silver eyes in the dark. Dozens of them.
But not watching us.
Waiting.
I gasp, stumbling backward. Jace catches my arm before I fall.
“Theo? What did you see?”
I shake my head, trying to clear it. “Something’s coming. Not hunting—answering.”
Stellan goes very still.
“You called them,” I say, looking at him. “Didn’t you?”
His expression shifts—surprise, then something almost like relief.
