Rune POV"Do you see yourself?" I asked. "Or do you see Grimfall?"Another pause. Longer this time."I don't--I don't know.""Yes, you do." I took a breath. "You've been battling the whispers for weeks." Fighting to stay yourself.Fighting to keep the corruption from gaining full control. You know what Grimfall sounds like. You know what it feels like when it is trying to control you.""It doesn't have to be a fight," Tiago interjected. And that's what I'm trying to explain. Stop resisting, and it stops hurting.""Stop resisting, and you stop existing," I countered. I still didn't look at Wilder. Kept talking to him while watching Tiago, "You think you'll be partners? You think Grimfall is offering you equality? It's a parasitic force, Wilder. It consumes. That's all it knows how to do.""Aeris is dying of corruption," Tiago said. "I'm thriving with it. Which of us sounds like Grimfall's victim?""Both of you," I said. "Here, Aeris is dying because he's been fighting it for twenty year

Author's POVThe van was silent except for the hum of the engine and the occasional shift of tactical gear.Eleven days had passed since Charis had revealed the prophecy. Eleven days of brutal training, sleepless nights, and constant awareness that time was running out.And now it was here.Convergence night.The astronomical alignment was perfect. The barriers between worlds were thinnest. And somewhere, fifteen miles out of New Haven at an abandoned Estate built on a convergence of ley lines, Grimfall was breaking through.Rune sat in the back of the Van with his hands clasped loosely in his lap. Beside him, close enough so that their shoulders touched, was Wilder. They weren't even talking to each other in the last twenty minutes. Hadn't needed to. Just sat there together in comfortable silence while all around them there was chaos swirling around them.Zayan noticed. Had been noticing for days.Ever since Rune and Wilder had come back to the Sanctum battered and exhausted with the

Zayan POVI'd been in a lot of fights.Street brawls over territory. Dealers that didn't want to pay up. Cops who believed that a dropout kid deserved a beating just for existing.But I'd never fought my way through an army to get to my baby sister.The thralls kept coming. Wave after wave. Corrupted Etherwind people with grey patches growing across their skin, their eyes too black, their actions dictated by something that wasn't human anymore.I crushed them.Not killed. Astoria's rules were clear. But I didn't hold back either. Earth spikes from below to knock them off balance. Stone walls to trap them. The ground itself rises and swallows their feet, pinning them.Every thrall I put down was one step closer to Zenna.She was still at the bottom of the mansion steps. Fighting along with the other corrupted users. Her entropy manipulation, lashing out at anyone who got close to it, made our people scream when it connected.Making them age. Making them decay. Making them feel decades

Eilish POVThe convergence point looked worse from a distance.I stood with Babushka's tactical team, on the north perimeter of the perimeter, watching shadows bleed from Blackthorn Estate like blood from a wound. The darkness crept on the grounds, eating things that it was able to touch. Grass withered. Trees died. The air itself felt sick.And somewhere in the thick of that corruption was my family fighting.Rune. Wilder. Zayan. Kaladin.They'd gone in without me."Perimeter holding steady," one of the tactical team members reported into his comm. His name was Viktor. Russian accent. One of the oldest of Babushka's soldiers. "No thralls breaching the north side yet."Yet.The word hung heavy. Because they would breach. Eventually. There were too many of them. Far too much Corruption spreading. Too much darkness.We couldn't hold forever.I clutched my hands together and tried to hold the fire in check. My element had been flashing all night - responding to my fear, my anxiety, my de

Zenna POVFor just a second, the convergence drove forward. The tear widened. Shadows spilled out.Then Aeris gathered himself. The fire surged brighter. The tear was forced back."Do it," Aeris said. His voice was firm again. Final. "Do what's necessary. Save them. Save everyone."I heard movement. Footsteps on stone.Wilder was walking toward the convergence point.Toward the tear in reality.Toward death.He was really going to do it. Going to become a vessel. Going to let Grimfall fill him and corrupt him and consume him just to seal the ancient evil away.He was going to give himself up.Seventeen years old, and he was walking like it was inevitable, walking toward death.Like he'd accepted it.Like he didn't have a choice.And maybe he didn't. Maybe this was the only way. Maybe the prophecy was right, and someone needed to become a vessel, and someone did need to become Wilder.But god, it wasn't fair.None of this was fair.I'd joined Grimfall because I wanted power. Because I