Page 78 of The Fifth Heir

“If you finish the path, you could kill Rafe.”

“I know.”

The clear light withdrew.

I fed a narrow stream of fire into the second brazier. Its flame stabilized without rising.

Cold gathered below the gap.

A pale blue surface spread across the trench, growing upward through the flames. Leander’s ice should have melted before reaching the bridge, but he reinforced it faster than the heat could break it.

The first layer struck the underside of the stone.

“Now,” Talia said.

I lowered both hands and released fire across the broken edges.

Not enough to burn.

Enough to soften.

The ice hissed beneath it. Steam filled the gap, obscuring the new support. I kept the heat steady while the bridge shuddered under my boots.

“Torren,” Talia warned.

“I have it.”

The fractured edges glowed dark red. Melted stone dripped toward Leander’s ice and hardened against it.

I reduced the flame.

Steam cleared.

A rough black surface filled the gap. It was narrower than the original bridge and uneven where fire and ice had met, but it held.

I stepped onto it.

The support cracked.

I shifted my weight forward and crossed before it could break.

The moment both feet reached the opposite side, the fused stone collapsed into the trench.

“Across,” I said.

Talia’s relief traveled through the flame as clearly as her voice, warm and immediate enough that I felt it beneath my torc. “Go back to the first brazier.”

“The first?”

“You need to extinguish them in reverse order.”

“That takes me away from the Crown Gate.”

“We aren’t trying to reach the individual gates anymore.”

I watched the outline beyond the third brazier.

“What are we trying to reach?”