Kane and Vesper left the alley before dawn.The sky above Valdris was still dark, the first hint of morning barely touching the horizon. Behind them, the city walls stood silent, but Kane knew silence would not last. Voss may discover their escape soon, if he had not already.Seraphine had wanted to come. Kane had wanted that too but wanting and surviving were often two different things.Now only Kane and Vesper walked beneath the tall trees surrounding Valdris.For three hours, they moved without stopping.Vesper walked ahead, her eyes constantly searching the trees. Kane noticed how often her hand rested near her blade. She was listening to things he could not hear."How far behind us do you think Voss is?" Kane asked."Far enough that we should keep moving," Vesper replied. "Close enough that we should not relax."That sounded exactly like Vesper.Vesper stopped so suddenly Kane nearly walked into her."What is it?" he asked.She crouched and touched the ground. Her fingers brushed

Vesper returned from the forest with an armful of firewood. She stopped walking immediately when she discovered that Kane was not alone. A woman sat beside him leaning close and her hand rested gently on his chest like she belonged there. Vesper’s eyes narrowed. “Oh My God……Seraphine?” The woman turned slowly and smiled, but something about the smile was wrong. Vesper dropped the wood, walked towards her to take a closer view of her. “You’re not her,” she said sharply. The woman tilted her head. “Oh?” she whispered. Her body shimmered, and Seraphine's face melted away, revealing the demon's true, terrifying form. One second she was standing beside him, and the next, she was between him and the creature. Her sword sliced through the air in a bright silver arc, forcing the monster to leap backward with an angry hiss. It landed several feet away, melting into the shadows like smoke. Vesper's eyes burned with fury. "How dare you wear her face?" she said, her voice, shar

Seraphine's grandmother sat on the floor with her back against the stone wall and her legs stretched out in front of her like they belonged to someone else. Many years in chains had done that. Those years of being locked in place had made her grandmother's body forget what freedom felt like. She could see it in the way her grandmother moved like she was surprised every time her legs obeyed the commands her brain was sending and the muscles were shaking from effort that should have been easy but was now almost impossible.Seraphine knelt beside her grandmother and held a water flask to the old woman's lips and watched her drink slowly and carefully.When her grandmother finished drinking, she lowered the flask and waited for the question she knew was coming and it came almost immediately like her grandmother could read her mind."How long has he been gone?" her grandmother asked. Her voice was rough from years of not speaking very much and from the dryness that came from years of min

Kane's leg was still bleeding. His body was covered in tiny wounds from the scorpions. Vesper was exhausted too. They both looked like they had been through hell– they still had to climb.To their surprise the mountain moved–a section of rock shifted. It revealed something underneath.Kane stopped breathing for a second.They saw a gate standing inside the mountain–not a normal gate, this one was made entirely of fire.Bright flames shaped like a doorway. The fire burned fiercely, but the rocks around it remained untouched. Heat slammed into them even from fifty meters away."What is that?" Vesper whispered. Her voice sounded extremely frightened.Kane had never seen her this frightened before.Malachar's voice spoke inside Kane's head."This is the Burning Gate. You cannot destroy it. Your powers will not help you here. This fire is older than magic itself. The only way forward is through it, you must accept the pain."Kane turned to Vesper. "We have to walk through it."Vesper looke

"Your mother knew," her grandmother said from behind her. "Your mother knew about my past. She forgave me, she told me that the only way to atone was to protect you. Seraphine felt something shift inside her, like the ground was moving beneath her feet. Nothing she believed about her family was true anymore. Then the soul bond flared. It was sudden and seemed violent. The pain was so intense that Seraphine gasped and fell to her knees because she had felt Kane was walking through something that was destroying him–she could feel every second of his agony through the connection that bound them together. "Kane," she whispered but Kane was far away. Kane was fighting to get into the Forbidden Wastes while she was trapped here in a basement, useless and unable to help him. Her power reacted to her fear. The shadows around her started to move. They moved like they were alive, like they were angry and restless and wanted to get out of the basement and reach Kane. They climbed up th