The archive floor split below them and Seraphine stumbled toward the gap. Adrian caught her arm before she fell and this time she did not pull awayBelow was darkness with no bottom. No walls he could find. A large circular shaft extended downward far farther than Dragon Sight could follow, and something was moving within it."That's not a tunnel," Seraphine said."No," Vaelric replied grimly. "It's a throat.""What?"He gestured to the shaft's edge, where rings of ancient metal lined the drop, each etched with thousands of symbols, some Dravaryn, some Adrian had never seen in his life. Every few seconds the rings constricted, tightening like lungs.Adrian's stomach twisted. Whatever was beneath Veyrith was not only imprisoned there,the entire city had been built atop it like a lid.THUMM. The archive shook. Cabinets tipped over behind them."My mother is down there," Seraphine said."That voice may not be your mother's.""I know." She met his eyes, steady despite everything. "But if

The laughter under the Sterling Tower fell silent.Adrian didn't breathe as the system's message appeared on his vision.[SECOND DRAVARYN SIGNATURE: DETECTED.] [SIGNATURE ORIGIN: ADRIAN VALE - FUTURE.]It was gone. Vanished. As if someone had brushed it away.Seraphine was giving him a look. "What did it say?"He didn't immediately answer. Vaelric had his attention fixed on him too tightly, and it made Adrian uneasy."You saw it," Adrian reminded him"No.""You're lying again.""I saw your face."Vaelric's expression didn't give anything away, but the grip of his weapon had tightened in his hand, not in surprise but in fear."You know what it means.""I know what it could mean.""Then tell me.""No.""Why?""Because if I'm right, knowing more just makes you easier to find.""Everyone seems to think that." Adrian took a step forward. "My mother erased my memory to keep me safe. Aleric buried me in this family to keep me safe. Orion picked us out before we were born." He looked at Vaelr

Every lock clicked simultaneously.Click. Click. Click.Adrian did not move. Neither did Seraphine. Vaelric paused a handful of feet away, his expression unreadable - but Adrian knew Vaelric well enough to know that he was trying not to be surprised by this turn of events. Surprise was not something Vaelric was good at hiding.Adrian turned to Seraphine. "What do you remember?"For a long moment, she did not answer. Her fingers twitched - not in apprehension, but in the tight restraint of a woman holding something against her will.Then she turned to Vaelric. "I remember a door.""What kind of door?" Vaelric's mouth tightened. "Tell me what kind of door.""You already know."Adrian sighed. "Enough. Tell me why Seraphine remembers you taking me.""I didn't take you," Vaelric said flatly.Seraphine gasped and another memory surged forward, forcing her to grip the edge of a cabinet for support. Adrian caught her before she could collapse."Seraphine," he murmured.She looked at him, her

The glass stopped mid-fall.Hundreds of fragments ringed the chamber around them, picking up the light like a broken constellation. Adrian did not move. Neither did Seraphine. No breath was drawn for a single, impossible second.Then Adrian's Dragon Sight tore open and gold consumed his vision.The shards were not scattered. They ringed the older man in the chair - the one wearing Adrian's face, beneath thirty extra years of scarring and a burn at his shoulder that left his coat black at the sleeves, one hand clutching a telephone which had no cord. Beneath his skin, something pulsed. Not the gold. Not the silver.The black."Nobody touch him," said Adrian.Seraphine's eyes locked on the stranger. "You think that's you?""No." Adrian didn't blink. "I think it wants me to believe it is."The older man smiled - the same twist at his left corner of his mouth, the same habit of studying a person before he spoke. Too accurate. Which was what scared Adrian more than the scars did.Beside hi

The Veyrith voice under his skin was cryingAdrian's hand clamped down on Seraphine's shoulder. Neither of them breathedThe System message hovered before them on the air, motionless[THE PERSON WHO RETURNED WAS NOT THE PERSON WHO DIED.]He read it three times before realizing it might not change. "What does that mean?"Seraphine's whisper barely reached his ear.Adrian's mind was already racing away from the words. Twenty years ago, Seraphine had watched a twenty-six-year-old Adrian sprawled on a laboratory table, dead. Eleven seconds later, his eyes had opened. Something had returned to his bodyNot necessarily himHe turned away from the black box. The bloodied cloth still rested inside, but it was the golden crystal beside it that had split open. His own body stared back at him from the photograph, the eyes marked out of the imageHe turned it so that the table was visible. "LookSeraphine's gaze tracked his, landing on the smudge just below the metal frame of the table. A circle,