The lead hunter mark appeared on Wickett’s skin. Black ink spreading across his neck like a living shadow, twin blades crossed beneath a crescent moon, the symbol of authority passing from father to son in the space between heartbeats. Wickett stared straight ahead, expression unreadable, and didn’t look at his father’s corpse once.
Everything happened too fast after that.
The demon waved dismissively. “Clear the room. The ascension is complete. Guards!” He gestured toward Gran. “Take care of the old woman. We have no use for her.”
Take care of her.
Not imprison. Not question.
Kill.
Guards moved toward Gran, and I tried to surge forward, tried to reach her, tried to do something. The crowd surged. Bodies pressed from all sides, shoving us toward the doors, the current impossible to fight.
“Syneca!” Wickett’s hand reached for me, but the crowd tore us apart, hundreds of bodies between us in seconds.
I grabbed Pip, pulling her against my chest, protecting her as we were swept forward. The only thing I could do right now.
I caught one last glimpse of Gran, standing tall despite everything, defiance in her eyes even now, before the crowd swallowed her completely.
“No!” The word ripped from my throat. “No!”
But the people kept moving, kept pushing, and we were swept out of the throne room in only seconds. Into the halls. Out of the castle. Through the gates. Into the streets. The doors slammed shut behind us with brutal finality.
I was the granddaughter of Alessia Talmyrien.The descendant of every Phoenix that ever burned this world. I couldn’t fall apart in the street where anyone could see. I could not break.
Not yet.
Instead, I ran.
Through shiny fucking streets and past creepy fucking statues. Past citizens who’d returned to their lives like nothing had happened, like they hadn’t just witnessed a murder and an ascension and the end of everything.
The hotel. I just needed to get to the hotel.
Pip stayed silent against my chest, her small body trembling. We burst through the door, up the stairs, into Aureth’s room where the Oracle sat exactly as we’d left her, like she’d been waiting.
The door closed behind me.
And I fell to my knees.
Everything I’d been holding back crashed through me at once, the grief, the rage, the absolute helplessness of watching everyone I loved be torn away while I could do nothing but stand there and take it.
Silas was there immediately, pressing his massive head against mine as he bowed, offering the only comfort he knew how to give. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my forehead to his, and let myself break.
Just for a moment. Just long enough to breathe past the pain crushing my chest.
Then I pulled back, meeting his deep blue eyes with everything I had left.
“Please.” My voice came out raw, desperate. “You have to find them for me. I need to know where Calder is. Where my Gran is.” Tears burned paths down my face. “Please find them, Si. Please.”
Silas made a sound low in his chest, agreement, promise, the absolute certainty of a familiar who would tear the world apart for the person they’d bonded to. Then he was gone, launching through the open window into the twisted city, wings carrying him into shadows where he could search unseen.
The room felt too quiet without him. Too empty.
I stayed on my knees, staring at nothing, trying to find the strength to stand when standing felt impossible.
Footsteps. Soft and deliberate, moved toward me. Aureth.
“You don’t need to do this, Aureth,” Riot said from the corner of the room, voice tight.
