“Bring her,” he said to Thorne. “It’s time.”
His voice was like silk. A priest delivering benediction over a pyre.
“To the spring?” one of the monks asked.
Vael nodded, eyes never leaving mine. “Where else does rebirth begin?”
He turned and began to descend the stairs, dragging Maddie behind him.
Thorne hesitated only a breath before guiding me after him, his fingers like ice on my arm. I didn’t fight. Not yet.
The walls groaned as another blast hit above us, dust falling like snow. Somewhere beyond, the war raged.
But down there…
Down there, something worse was waiting.
Chapter 48
Phoenix
We broke through into a large chamber. It was cavernous and empty, save for a steady drip, drip, drip of a small spring bubbling through the crack. With my fire I lit the space, bringing shadows to life around us.
“Where are we exactly?” I asked Rigg.
“We are currently a floor above Vael’s sanctum.” Rigg gestured to the river. It flowed freely down through a crack in the rock.
“His sanctum is behind that wall, fifteen feet down. The river feeds straight through it.” She said, “The tunnels veer in, deeper into the mountain.”
“Why can’t we break through from here?”
“You see this?” Rigg gestured to a light shimmering on the cave wall. “It’s warded. Stronger wards than I’ve seen.”
“So if we can’t get in from here, why did we come here?” Leo asked, sounding frustrated.
“We need the tower, not the sanctum,” Lia said. She crossed to the opposite wall and ran her hand along the stone like she was feeling for a pulse. “There are people down there. Caged. Used in the worst ways,” Lia said, voice low. “We free them first. Then we move.”
Slade stepped forward. “What about Elira?”
“She is not our mission right now,” Lia said quietly. “She has to follow a different path.”
“Not our mission?” Caelen’s hand slid to his sword hilt. “I thought—”
“I told you,” Lia snapped, “this mission was set long before Elira returned. Vael has been stealing people—children—from towns, markets, villages. He’s been using them. Sacrificing them to his gods.”
“But Elira istrappedwith him—” Leo growled.
“And girls younger than her are facing worse!” Lia’s voice cracked like a whip. “I know it’s hard. But you need to trust what the fates have decreed—”
“What is that?” I cut in. “That we just leave her? That we let himhaveher again?”
“She won’t die,” Lia said, breath sharp. “Iknowthat. But she’s about to face a choice. One that can’t be interfered with. Not yet.”
Slade’s voice dropped. “Thorne. He’s here.”
Caelen went still. “He’ll kill her.”
“No,” I said before anyone else could. “He won’t. Not if there’s stillanyof him left.”
