I knew this feeling.
My stomach dropped.
Thorne.
Somewhere nearby, his magic was pushing out like a net. Reaching. Searching. Tearing.
I forced myself upright. Breath heaving. Head pounding.
Beside me, Caelen was in a full brawl—three Sentinels at once, sword flashing, cloak whipping in the wind. It should’ve impressed me.
If he wasn’t such a godsdamn jackass.
Thorne was my best friend. Always had been.
So seeing him now—stepping through smoke like he wasn’t dragging hell behind him, with those black, empty eyes—it was like watching a ghost wear his skin.
Thorne’s boots crunched the scorched earth as he stepped toward me. Calm. Precise. Not rushed. Like he had all the time in the world to kill me.
“Hello, Phoenix,” he said.
His voice was smooth. Detached. As if we hadn’t bled side by side. As if I hadn’t once trusted him with everything I had.
“Thorne,” I said. “What are you doing here with Vael?”
A cruel glint lit behind his void-black eyes. “You mean, why am Ialive,don’t you? Funny. You must’ve thought I was dead. On that dock.”
He paused. His head tilted slightly, just enough to make the anger in my gut twist.
“The night you left me behind.”
My heart kicked against my ribs. “I didn’t—Thorne, I wasn’tthere.I was unconscious. I didn’t even know you were taken until—”
He held up a hand.
“Don’t. Lie.”
“I’m not lying,” I snapped, stepping forward. “I swear to you—when I woke up, you were gone. We tried to find you. Wenever stopped.”
His face didn’t move. But his grip on the blade shifted.
“That’s sweet,” he said. “Really. But the facts don’t change, do they? I was taken. You lived.”
“I would have traded places with you,” I said. Voice cracking now. “Gods, Thorne—if I could’ve—Iwould have.”
Silence. Heavy and sharp.
And then—
“Too late.”
He struck.
I threw up my own sword, meeting him strike for strike. But he had me on the defensive. I didn’t want to kill him. I wasn’t sureI could.
“Thorne, stop. This isn’t you. You’ve been brainwashed –corrupted– “
Thorne struck out catching my face. A long cut opened on my cheek, blood pouring from it like water.
