I scoff and begin walking again, but he appears in front of me out of thin air.
“Wait. There’s something else.”
“What?” I grit out.
“My scouts believe that a member of Elowen’s court has infiltrated the trials.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “That’s not possible.”
“You really won’t listen to anything I say?” He sighs when I stay silent. "Just…be careful, Serenya.”
I push past him, clenching my hands into fists beneathmy cloak.
“You’ll come around,” he calls after me. “You always do. Eventually.”
I don't look back as I melt into the dark, letting my shadows swallow me, using vaelshad to take me home.
But his words follow me.
Chapter 7
?---- Koen ? ----?
I drag myself down the last corridor, each step filled with agony. My clothes hang in tatters, half-burned, soaked with blood. My skin feels raw, scraped, scorched. Ahead, I finally feel the faint hum of the pixie’s magic, reaching me from the end of the hall.
Almost there. Just a little more.
Behind me, the gloomstalker statues still follow. Their claws scrape against the stone, sharp and steady, a sound that makes my teeth ache. I don’t look back. I can’t. If I do, I’ll freeze, and freezing means I die here.
My legs scream with every step, muscles torn and trembling. Blood runs hot down my side from the gash I’ve been ignoring since…gods, when even was that?Feels like forever ago. I stumble into the final chamber and come to a stop, stomach plummeting.
A massive gate looms in front of me. No handle. No door. The bars tooclose for me to squeeze through.
“No, no, no, no…comeon!” I slam my fists against it desperately.
On the other side, Torin jumps up from where he was crouched on the wet ground, the pixie hovering beside him.
“Koen! You have to hurry! You’re almost out of time!”
My panic spikes. The sound of those claws scraping the stone is getting closer. My eyes dartfrantically around the chamber, searching for something, anything, to help me. A lever. A godsdamned miracle.
There.Off to the side is a circular pedestal. I must’ve blown right past it while running for my life.
I glance back. The statues stop moving when I’m staring them down. Still, they’re too close. If I make forthat pedestal and they move, I’m not sure I’ll make it back to the gate. Not like this.
This is it. This is where I die.
That strange shift inside me happens again. My skin prickles. The air itself seems to hum against me. Before I can even think about moving, light spills off me. Soft, golden, andalive.
It snakes along the floor like it knows the way, tendrils of sunlight unfurling toward the pedestal. My breath catches, and I’m too stunned to do anything but watch as it curls across the stone and carves glowing ancient patterns.
The pedestal flares. And the gate groans as it pulls open.
Behind me, the nearest gloomstalker shrieks. The sound sends shivers down my spine, and I don’t hesitate.
I run. My legs feel like they might collapse with each stride, but I don’t stop. The portal opens as the pixie calls it to life, and I dive through it.
The world twists, then spits me out. I hit the grass hard,breath knocked out of me. The air is cold and sharp in my lungs. Torin and the pixie tumble through after me.
