“I saw you there,” Kael said. The woman wiped one black tear from her cheek. “You did.” “You told me to run.” “I did.” “Why?” Her eyes moved to Seraphina. “Because she had begun to remember.” Seraphina's expression hardened. “Remember what?” The woman looked at her for a long moment. “Everything you asked him to forget.” Kael's gaze shifted between them. “What did she ask me to forget?” Neither woman answered. The palace groaned. Dust fell from the ceiling. Then a voice came from somewhere beyond the walls. “Enough.” CHAPTER 41 — HE CHOSE THIS The mountain came down around them. Kael felt Seraphina's fingers tighten around his. “Run!” They ran. Behind them, stone screamed against stone. The chamber collapsed in sections, each impact sending a violent tremor through the floor. Dust filled Kael's lungs. Something struck his shoulder hard enough to spin him sideways. He caught himself against the wall. “Kael!” “I’m fine.” Seraphina reached him. Blood ran fro

The mountain rose.Kael felt the ground disappear beneath his boots.For one impossible moment, the entire peak hung in the sky.Broken trees.Chunks of stone.Ancient pillars.Even rivers of soil.Everything lifted around them as though gravity had simply forgotten what it was supposed to do.Seraphina's hand remained locked in his.“Kael.”“I have you.”A stone the size of a house drifted past.Kael pushed it away with one hand.It shattered into dust.The silver-eyed woman stood several meters away, suspended in the air.Her dress moved though there was no wind.She was staring downward.“Something is waking beneath the mountain.”Kael followed her gaze.A darkness had opened below them.Not a hole.A depth.He couldn't see its bottom.Something moved within it.Slowly.Deliberately.Like an enormous creature turning in sleep.Then a heartbeat came from below.BOOM.The entire mountain shook.BOOM.Seraphina's fingers tightened.BOOM.Kael felt the rhythm inside his own chest.His

“Kael.”Nothing.Seraphina pressed two fingers against his neck.Nothing.She leaned closer.No breath touched her skin.“No.”Her voice broke.She placed both hands against his chest and pushed.“Come back.”Nothing.She pushed again.“Kael.”The seventh seal burned beneath her palm.“Don't do this.”Still nothing.Around them, the mountain had gone strangely quiet.The ancient armies stood frozen.The dragons had stopped circling.Even the seven Witnesses above the clouds were silent.Seraphina looked down at Kael.His face was peaceful.Too peaceful.She hated it.She struck his chest with her palm.“You promised.”Nothing.Her eyes filled.“You promised me you would let me choose.”A tear fell onto his cheek.“You promised you wouldn't choose my fate for me.”Her voice became a whisper.“So don't choose yours.”Kael didn't move.Seraphina lowered her head.Her forehead touched his.For several seconds, she simply stayed there.Then something inside her answered.Not a voice.A mem

The sound of his name did not echo.It erased the echo.Kael stood in the collapsing white world, Seraphina's hand locked tightly in his, while the enormous eye stared through them.KAEL ARDENT.Every syllable carried weight.Not the weight of a command.Recognition.The kind that made the bones remember something the mind had forgotten.Kael's knees nearly buckled.Seraphina caught him.“Kael.”He breathed through his teeth.“I heard it.”“Heard what?”“My name.”She looked at the eye.“It shouldn't know your human name.”“That isn't what frightens me.”“What does?”Kael looked at her.“It sounded like it knew me before I became Kael.”The white world shattered completely.There was no falling.No ground.No direction.Kael and Seraphina simply dropped through existence.Seraphina screamed his name.Kael reached for her.Their fingers separated.“Seraphina!”She disappeared into darkness.“KAEL!”Her voice became distant.Then silence.Kael landed on something hard.He opened his eye

The kneeling figures filled the chamber.Millions of them.At least, that was what Kael's mind insisted.There should not have been enough space for so many bodies beneath the mountain.Yet they stood there.Shoulder to shoulder.Silent.Their faces were pale beneath the violet light, their clothes belonging to no single age. Some wore armor. Others wore robes. Some looked human. Others carried horns, wings, scales, tails, or eyes that glowed like dying stars.The First World had not died.Not all of it.They had been waiting.Seraphina stood at the center of them.She looked smaller than the crowd.Yet every being in the chamber was looking at her.Not Kael.Her.Veyr stepped forward.“Your Majesty.”Seraphina didn't answer.Her eyes moved across the faces.A woman with silver markings.An old man with crystal horns.A child holding the hand of a winged creature.A warrior with half his face covered in scales.Then she saw someone she recognized.Her breath caught.“No.”Kael looked