“I don’t think he’s a ghost.”
“Just so you know, that’s not actually comforting.”
The alley opened into a small courtyard, and that’s when I heard them. Voices drifting from a gathered crowd. “The Heartless One has been honored with ascension,” a woman said to her companion, both dressed in matching emerald coats.
My blood went cold.
Calder.
“What did you say?” I pushed through the crowd. “The Heartless One. Where is he?”
The woman turned to me with empty eyes that made my skin crawl. “All will witness the honor. Midnight in the Master’s throne room.”
“All are welcome to witness the ascension,” her companion echoed.
A child appeared at my elbow, eyes too bright. “The Master’s throne room. Midnight.”
Then they dispersed, leaving me standing alone with Pip and a terrible certainty settling in my chest.
“We need to find the others,” she breathed. “Right now.”
“Yeah.” I whispered the summoning spell, calling Silas back. “We really do.”
Because whatever was happening at midnight in the Master’s throne room involved Calder and I was not about to sit by and let him fucking ascend to anything he didn’t ask for.
Midnight found Pip,Wickett and I cloaked and moving through crowded streets. Riot didn’t argue when the Oracle asked him to stay with her. Which didn’t bode well for whatever we were to find.
Citizens flooded toward the central castle, their elegant coats now more like funeral garb. And they sang.
They sang in a language that made my ears ring and my teeth ache, syllables that felt wrong just from hearing them. Ancient. Twisted. The kind of sounds that shouldn’t exist.
Someone grabbed my arm, trying to pull me back. Wickett.
Silas was between us before I could blink, a low growl rumbling from his chest.
“Syn, we need to talk.” Wickett’s voice was urgent, strained. “Before we go in there.”
“I promise I’ll give you all of my time. But I can’t right now.” I kept my eyes forward, watching the crowd flow toward those massive black gates. “Calder’s in there. That’s what matters.”
“Syn, please?—”
I turned to look at him, heated beneath his gaze as he gripped my shoulders. “Later,” I promised, pulling free of his grip. “We can talk after we get him out.”
Pip stayed near my shoulder, uncharacteristically subdued. I knew she could feel the wrongness saturating the air, the sense of walking toward something we shouldn’t. But for him, we’d do it anyway.
The gates loomed ahead, of course, carved from more of the same black stone. Silas’s growl intensified as we passed through,and I placed my hand on his head to try to pacify him. “Don’t cause a scene, Si.”
We listened to the crowd as we pressed forward. Whispers, excited murmurs, all variations on the same theme, the voices not coming from anyone specific but rather echoes through everyone.
“The Heartless One.”
“The ascension.”
My stomach churned. What the fuck was happening?
“The Master honors him.”
“Such a gift. Such a blessing.”
