Lyralei and Daemon shared a look of understanding. Then, Lyralei stood before us, one hand pressed to her wounded shoulder.
"Survive. All of you." The Keeper's eyes held centuries of grief. "Just know that I believe in you, Seris."
With that, she unleashed the full power of her magic.
A building collapsed inward, sending sparks spiraling into the sky.
The enemy front lines disintegrated.
“Hold! Aim for the girl!” A commander bellowed directions as his archers flanked us from both sides.
Before they could reach their positions, Lyralei struck. Their bodies tore open from the inside. Their limbs alike exploded in every direction.
"Veil-witch!"
A squadron of soldiers charged at us. Before Daemon’s team and I had time to respond, they were obliterated.
Lyralei stood tall despite her injuries, facing off against the entire force converging from every direction. A protective spell surrounded us, a sphere of the Veil blocking arrows and spells cast by enemy mages.
At the same time, enemies crumpled into their own hearts without a chance to scream. Lyralei had become a terrifying force of nature. Despite the immense power, there were too many of them, and she was already injured.
She stumbled. The light around us flickered, the pattern fragmenting.
Her work reassembled itself, but wrong now, unstable. The geometry twisted, distances collapsing too quickly. I felt the pull as reality prepared to fold around us. Lyralei turned to us abruptly.
“It’s time for you to go.” She held the gentle smile that had made me feel so safe, yet so defeated.
"Wait," I reached for Lyralei. "You have to come with us, you can't, "
"Tell them." The Keeper's eyes found hers, brilliant even as they dimmed. "Tell them Vaelthorne stood. Tell them we did not surrender."
"No! "
The world twisted.
I saw it in fragments as the teleportation cast by the last of her strength seized us. Lyralei’s protective spell collapsed, her light finally failing. Soldiers closed in, surrounding her.
I saw Vaelthorne burning. Sacred structures that had survived centuries reduced to ash and ember. I saw a group of soldiers approach Lyralei with restraints. The Keeper would not let them take her alive. Before the teleportation had completed, I watched spears, swords, and arrows impale her from every direction.
Then distance snapped closed like a slamming door, and we were elsewhere.
I hit stone hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. Cold bit into my skin. It was dark, but light filtered into theenvironment from somewhere. We were underground. Around me, the others materialized in various states of collapse.
Zephyr sprawled motionless, pale as death. Kael crawled to him immediately, checking for wounds.
Kane rose slowly, shield arm hanging limp, breathing ragged.
Daemon remained on his knees, shadows dissolving around him.
I sank to my knees.
The home I’d found. The people who'd welcomed me. The sanctuary that had survived purges and centuries of hiding,
Gone.
Because of me. Because I’d been there.
The last living Keeper of the Veil was now gone so I could live.
