Kael stood in the scorched remnants of the Vault, the air still hot with the ghost of her fire.The Third Flame was real.And she had left them with nothing but ash and questions.Lira stumbled to her feet, pressing a hand to the glass gate—now cracked and dim. Her gaze was hollow.“She was supposed to be dormant,” she whispered.Kael turned to her. “You knew what was in there.”“I thought I did. I thought she was a weapon. I didn’t think she was alive.”Kael looked back at the place the girl had stood. “She said I started something. That I opened the gate.”Lira winced. “You did. But the Vault was never about containment. It was a seal. You broke it.”“And now?”“Now she walks free.”Kael swore under his breath. The mark on his chest had gone cold. Not quiet. Just… waiting.He sheathed his blades. “We need to follow her.”Lira gave him a look. “Do you even know what she is?”“No. But I know what she’s not. She’s not human.”“No,” Lira said. “She’s older. And angrier.”Kael walked tow

The wind over the northern hills was cold and sharp, pulling at Kael’s cloak as he stood at the ridge and stared down into the valley below. Smoke still rose from the ruins of the outpost they had found the night before. He had not slept. Neither had Nyra, though she said nothing as she crouched beside him, her eyes tracing the blackened trail of destruction that stretched across the valley floor.No bodies remained. Only bones. Scorched white and half-buried in ash.“What kind of flame does this?” Nyra asked, her voice barely louder than the wind.Kael had no answer. He crouched beside her, brushing his hand across the cracked earth. It was warm. Not from the sun, but from something deeper beneath the ground. Something old. Something alive.“We need to move,” he said. “If the riders sent word north, there could be more of them.”“There’s no one left to send anything,” Nyra said. “This place is dead.”Kael rose. “Then we make for Hollowrest. The court still holds there.”“For now.”Th

Kael did not sleep.The wound over his heart still burned, not with pain but with something deeper. A memory that had not happened yet. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the creature again, its gold mask gleaming, its voice calling him the gate. He did not know what that meant. But Nyra’s silence worried him more than the fire.She had not spoken a word since they climbed out of the cracked chamber beneath the Archive. Her steps were light, but her eyes had changed. They no longer carried that quiet arrogance. Now they were watchful. Cold.Kael walked behind her through the winding halls of the Archive. He had forgotten how vast it truly was. Rooms folded into staircases, staircases into vaults. No guards. No priests. Only firelight flickering along the walls and the low hum of something moving beneath the stone.He reached for her finally.“Tell me.”Nyra did not stop. “What?”“You know more than you’re saying. What did that creature mean? Why call me a gate?”She looked over her

Kael had known silence before, but never like this. The kind that pressed in from every side, smothering breath and thought. A silence so heavy it felt like standing inside a tomb that had never known light.The ruins of Vareth’s southern watch stood in broken pieces beneath the gray sky. The walls had crumbled long ago, swallowed by creeping moss and thorn-rooted trees. Kael stepped through the shattered gate, sword drawn, boots crunching over glassy ash. Each step echoed louder than it should have.Behind him, Nyra moved like a shadow, her boots barely touching the ground. Mirelia followed, hood drawn up against the wind, her face unreadable. The air reeked of iron. Not fresh blood — older. Older than it should have been.“This place wasn’t taken by battle,” Kael muttered.Nyra nodded. “No bodies. No signs of siege. Just... gone.”Kael ran his fingers over a blackened pillar. The stone was smooth. Melted. Like something had scorched it from the inside.“What could do this?” Mirelia

The wind screamed across the jagged cliffs. Kael stood at the edge, his cloak snapping behind him like a dying banner. Below, the sea churned black, flecked with shards of light from the rising moon. The cliffs were quiet, but not peaceful. There was a weight in the air, something pressing against his bones. Watching.Lira stood a few paces behind him, arms crossed, eyes narrowed toward the sea.“He’s here, isn’t he?” she asked.Kael didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. She already knew.The figure they had tracked from the ruins, the one who had walked through flame, who left no prints in ash, who moved faster than eyes could follow, had reached the cliffs first. And now he waited.Kael’s fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword. It was still warm from the last fight. The metal pulsed faintly, as if eager.Behind them, Nyra paced at the treeline, her boots silent against the moss. She hadn’t spoken since they reached the cliffs. She didn’t need to either.The silence broke when a