Back to: A Mirror of Shadows

Episode 13: A Doorway Between The Light and The Darkness

BEX

By morning, the Shard felt sharper.
The crystal light cut harsh angles across the corridor, and every sound carried the weight of a countdown.

Calli woke me by chucking a pillow at my face. “Up. Slate wants us on the training grounds in ten.”

“But did he say please?”

She snorted. “I don’t believe that word is in his vocabulary.”

I dressed quickly and ate the breakfast Calli had brought back to the room for me. She must have gotten up really early and left me here to sleep, which I had to say I appreciated.

My muscles ached in that bone-deep way that told me I’d pushed right up to my limits and then tripped over them. The memory of Slate’s hands hovering near my face last night burned underneath everything like a secret bruise.

I tried not to think about it and failed miserably.

He’d almost kissed me. I was certain of it.

I was also certain that I’d wanted it.

The Regent wanted to kill me for it, and yet I still wanted him. So, what did that say about me? From what Calli had told us about the signets and all the steps someone had to go through in order to have even some small chance at escape from this world, it was obvious it was going to take a very long time and a lot of brushes with certain death to get there.

Which would have been hard enough without the Regent’s hatred. How would I ever survive this place with her eyes on me?

If I knew what was good for me, I’d beg for a transfer to a different team or to be moved to the working class instead of trying to make my way through the Games. The Regent would probably be happy to send me as far away from Slate as possible.

But I knew I wouldn’t do it.

Not now.

For better or worse, I was in this all the way.

Til death do us part, I thought, and then laughed.

In the hallway, Elara joined us with a yawn. “Nothing is that amusing this early in the morning.”

Orion appeared next, serene as always. Brim waited by the junction, arms crossed—but for the first time, no hatred in his eyes.

“Morning,” he said.

I blinked. “Morning.”

Calli shot me a look so bright she practically glowed. “I love that we’re all getting along now. It makes me so happy.”

“Now all we have to do is survive long enough to enjoy it,” I said, and she bumped my arm.

The training arena was stripped bare except for one figure standing in the center. Slate. Fully armored and impossible to read.

“Form up,” he said.

We fell into place with Brim ahead, Calli to my left, Elara behind my right shoulder, and Orion anchoring us from behind. It didn’t feel like an order anymore. It felt natural.

Slate studied each of us. “You performed well in the first round. Barely. You adapted, and you survived. That’s the minimum standard if you intend to live through the final Game.”

Calli squinted. “Was that praise?”

“Don’t get excited,” he said, nodding toward Orion. “You’ll need more than luck this time.”

Orion lifted his hands, and a shimmering dome wrapped around us, cutting out all external sound. I stared, open-mouthed. He’d been hiding more power than I realized.

“Any chance you’ve obtained some intel about what that final challenge might entail?” Orion asked quietly.

Slate’s jaw tightened. “The details are being well-guarded, but I’ll keep trying. I do know this. The Regent will not tolerate another near-miss. She will stack the board against you. And she will target Bex again. Maybe Brim, too.”

“Of course she will,” I muttered. “Wouldn’t want to break tradition.”

Slate’s eyes cut to mine, sharp. “This isn’t a joke.”

“I’m aware,” I said. “Trust me.”

Brim and I exchanged glances. No longer enemies, but joined now in danger. He’d risked his life with the Regent for me, and I would do everything I could to keep him safe in that final round.

I hoped we’d all do that for each other, but the moment the thought occurred to me, I saw a brief flash of Maggie’s face in my memory. The way she’d looked at Amelia and told her she’d done everything they asked. That she wanted her reward for turning me in.

All those years of sharing secrets in the dark, sharing our pain, meant nothing in the end. Why would it be any different here? Could I really trust this team?

Brim shifted, the leather at his wrist creaking. “Yesterday, after the Games. She called me to her throne room. Alone.”

Calli’s head snapped toward him. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“You needed your rest,” he said, but there was no bite in it.

“What happened?” I asked, my throat suddenly dry. I glanced at Slate, thinking he would be angry or shocked to hear this, but he seemed to be calm.

Brim must have already talked to him about this.

“I told her I panicked. Went for the win instead of the kill,” he said, his voice rough like gravel. “She said she expects me to correct my mistake in the finals.” 

His gaze met mine, steady, apologetic and stubborn all at once.

My stomach turned. “So she thinks—”

“She thinks I’m still hers,” he said. “Let her. As long as she believes I’m on her side, she won’t try to kill you herself. We can keep you safe.”

“For a little while, but what happens when we survive? Or win? She’ll keep coming after us.”

“Not necessarily,” Slate said. “Once you’re the winning team, she won’t lay a hand on you. At least not until the Shadow Games are over for this round.”

“This all sounds wonderfully dangerous,” Elara said with a smile.

Slate stepped closer, the lines at the edges of his eyes deepening.

“Whatever the final Game is, we must assume the Regent will come after Bex on multiple fronts. She’ll seek to isolate her. To force one of you to make a choice.”

“Kill or be killed,” I said.

“Worse,” Slate shot back. “Kill her or watch your entire team die.”

Calli squeezed my hand. She knew exactly what that felt like.

“For the next few days, we train for three things.” He lifted a hand, counting them off. “First: formation. If she separates you, you find a way back to each other. You’re more vulnerable alone. Second: counters. She’ll send constructs and magical traps that test your individual weaknesses. We learn to spot them and shield against them as a unit.”

His gaze found me again.

“Third, we figure out what to do when you lose control, Bex.”

My skin went cold and hot all at once.

“You mean if I fail.”

“I mean if you have no other way out,” he said.

The breath stuttered in my chest. He wanted me to lose control on purpose?

“I’ve watched your power since the day you arrived,” Slate said. “It’s not just shadows and phasing. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Ancient, maybe. You’ve been fighting it every step of the way. Trying not to break things. Not to hurt anyone. You’ve been trying to make sure it doesn’t control you. But in the final round, if the Regent presses hard enough, you’re going to have to stop holding back.”

Calli swallowed. “Is that smart? We’ve all seen what happens when she loses control.”

“I don’t think we’ve seen the half of it,” Slate said. “And as terrifying as that is, I’d rather go into the final round with a plan for how we can use it than a plan to hold it back.”

“Now, things are getting interesting,” Elara said, rubbing her hands together. “I would like to see this power of yours.”

My heart hammered. “So, you want to train me to what, exactly? Obliterate the arena?”

“I want to find your triggers so that if it becomes necessary, you know how to access that power when you need it.” He looked around. “And that everyone here knows how to protect against it when necessary.”

Silence settled over us, thick and uneasy.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said quietly. “Any of you.”

Brim grunted. “I’ve survived worse.”

“I literally shattered a soul stone,” I reminded him.

“Then we should probably figure out how far you can push it before it really hurts,” he said.

My eyes widened. “You’re volunteering for me to blast you with everything I’ve got?”

“Someone has to,” he said. “Better me than Calli. Or anyone else. I can take more damage than any of you, and we all know it.”

“Brim,” Calli whispered, her voice uneven. “You don’t have to—”

“I know,” he said. “But I will.”

Slate considered him for a long moment, then nodded.

“We’ll start smaller,” he said. “Controlled bursts. Deflected strikes. If at any point it’s clear this training is doing more harm than good, we stop. Orion can test his shields against it. Understood?”

Everyone looked at me.

Every instinct I had screamed to shake my head. To refuse. To protect them by staying small, contained, unthreatening. I’d spent my whole life trying to disappear. To be as silent and unnoticed as possible.

And now he was asking me to make the whole Shard take notice. I wasn’t sure I could do that.

But Slate was right. If I wanted more than survival. If I wanted to truly live. I was going to have to do something different. Be someone different.

“Understood,” I said, my voice shaking.

Slate gave a single sharp nod.

“Good,” he said. “Then let’s begin.”

What followed wasn’t hours of training. It was a death rehearsal.

We practiced moving through sudden pits and shifting platforms. Calli flew short distances, learning how to yank someone out of danger with only a few feet of lift. Brim braced himself for my controlled bursts, taking hit after hit without complaint.

Orion shielded us from my misfires. Elara used her blood magic to disrupt constructs and test our reflexes.

And through it all, Slate kept his distance. Professional. Sharp. Guarded. I felt his eyes on me only when I wasn’t looking.

By the time the false sun dipped low, he raised a hand.

“That’s enough for today. Tomorrow we will refine our strategy. Then you rest until the final Game. No wandering. No answering summons without me.”

My heart stuttered at the possessiveness threaded through his voice. He tried to act as if he was so detached, but then why did he want so badly to keep us safe?

There had to be a heart inside him. He was just good at locking it away.

“Do you think she’ll strike before the Game?” Brim asked.

Slate hesitated. “I doubt it. But stay together, all of you.”

His gaze landed on me, raw for half a second before he shuttered it away.

“Go,” he said quietly. “Eat. Recover. And stay close.”

Calli hooked her arm through mine on the way out, chattering about warm baths and edible food. Elara called my magic “adorable” just to make me roll my eyes. Orion promised a treat of cinnamon tea at breakfast. Brim walked beside me with a bruised shoulder he promised Lavender would help to heal.

For a moment, we felt like something whole.

At the edge of the training ring, I hesitated, glancing back at Slate. He stood alone, staring up toward the amethyst castle like he could see the Regent through the stone.

A man at war with himself.

What would happen to him if he disobeyed the Regent? If he chose us instead? Could we trust him, when he worked so hard to stay closed off?

Calli bumped my side. “We’re going to be okay, Bex. I promise.”

Her confidence hit a place I wasn’t ready to name.

“I guess we’ll find out in three days,” I said.

I followed them toward dinner, the dragonfly pendant warm against my chest, reacting to all the magic I’d pushed myself to spend today. Like it knew something I didn’t.

SLATE

The training grounds emptied slowly, and footsteps faded down the corridor until only silence remained.

I stood in the center of the ring, breathing hard, sweat cooling on my skin even as a different kind of heat stirred just beneath the surface. Markings I had no name for. A warning I didn’t dare acknowledge.

It always happened now when I thought of her.

I closed my eyes, forcing my breath into a disciplined rhythm.

But all it took was a flash of memory from when she found me here last night, training alone. I’d almost lost control with her entirely. Something that had never happened before in my long life.

The heat flared again, sharp as a spark beneath my skin, but I pushed it down as far as I could and spun toward the shadows, jaw tightening. If the runes surfaced. If even a sliver of that light broke through when someone was watching me. I would have no explanation.

No defense.

I reached for the hidden blade in my belt.

“Easy,” a low female voice murmured. “If you’re seen drawing a weapon against a shadow, someone’s going to start asking questions.”

Nyxara stepped from the darkness like she’d been formed from it. Tall, lithe, her every movement fluid as water. Her ebony skin shimmered faintly, not with magic, but with the kind of allure she could weaponize without effort.

It was her eyes that shone brightest. Citrine like the Shard she came from.

A siren-born. Not the kind that dragged sailors to their doom, but the kind who could bend a room with a glance and make men confess sins they’d never committed.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” I said.

“I can be anywhere I please,” she said, smiling. “Besides, I heard a few rumors that need to be put to rest before the next Shadow Games.”

She circled me once, her gaze sharp as a blade. She’d always been like this. Half threat, half comfort. It unsettled most people, but we’d been friends for decades. Long enough for her to read my silences better than most people read words.

The rumors had to be about Bex. A topic I wasn’t ready to talk about with anyone.

Nyxara frowned. “Slate.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” she said softly.

My shoulders tensed. “Crossing Shards like this is reckless. If the Regent senses even a whisper—”

“You’re supposed to have control of the Regent,” she said. “But from what I’ve heard, things aren’t going as planned here in the Amethyst Games. I heard you placed second in the first round. That your team nearly died.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Rumors travel fast,” she said. “Tell me about this Condemned girl you keep circling.”

My jaw locked. “I circle no one.”

She laughed once, bitter and soft. “I’ve known you for a very long time, Slate. Seen you command battles, win tournaments, face down horrors with less emotion than someone ordering supper. But now?” She stepped closer, searching my face. “Now you look away when her name is spoken. You flinch when she’s standing too close. And when she’s in danger… you stop breathing.”

“I don’t—”

“Don’t bother denying it,” she whispered, circling me as she traced a fingertip across the skin of my shoulder. “It’s the way I used to hope you’d look at me, before I realized you had no heart. No capacity for love.”

The word tightened my chest. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about people. I just thought I wasn’t capable of the kinds of emotions people like Nyx felt about me.

Was Bex changing that? Did I want her to?

Nyxara watched me battle the thoughts, suspicion tightening her features. She knew me too well for me to hide from her.

“You’re compromised,” she said, eyes wide with surprise. Her voice was not cruel, it was pained and filled with fear. Something I’d rarely seen from her outside of battle. “I need to know if you’re capable of seeing this through.”

“Do you really doubt me? After everything I’ve risked up to this point?”

She took a deep breath.

“I’ve never known you to lose focus,” she said. “But Slate, we cannot afford for you to abandon the plan now.”

I met her gaze, cold and steady. “I haven’t abandoned the plan.”

“Then why do I get the sense you’re hiding something from me?”

I kept my expression steady, but inside, my mind was full of torment. I wanted to shout that I had no choice but to hide the way I felt, because every time Bex touched me, a part of my soul I didn’t understand roared to life.

Because every time she was in danger, I wanted to tear the Shard apart stone by stone.

Because when she was close to me, I could think of nothing else. And when she was away, I felt lost without her.

But Nyxara couldn’t know that. I couldn’t even fully admit it to myself.

“She is a part of my team,” I said. “Nothing more.”

Nyxara stepped closer, voice dropping. “Tell me she’s not your weakness.”

“I don’t have weaknesses,” I said.

She stared at me for a long moment.

“Then why am I suddenly terrified?” she asked with a trembling breath. ““Be careful, Slate. You’re playing with fire, and if you burn, we all burn with you.”

Before I could respond, heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor. Metal against stone, cadence too precise to be anything but a Sentinel.

Nyxara retreated instantly, dissolving into shadow with a siren’s grace, no ripple or sound.

A tall Sentinel emerged, his silver-grey armor gleaming in the torchlight.

“Warden Slate,” he said. “The Regent commands your presence.”

I straightened slowly, burying every emotion and fear under a layer as thick and cold as ice.

“I’ll be there at once.”

The Sentinel turned.

I didn’t look back to see if Nyx had left, but I knew she was right.

If the Regent sensed even a fraction of what stirred in me, we were all dead.

BEX

The area surrounding the barracks and the mess hall had emptied completely by the time I slipped outside.

The crystals overhead had dimmed to a soft lilac, washing the corridors in a kind of half-light that made everything look haunted.

I told myself I just wanted fresh air.

That I wasn’t hoping to see him.

Both were lies, and I knew it by the way my heart betrayed me when I saw the ring was empty.

No shadows moving. No familiar silhouette. Just silence and the faint hum of magic under the floor. My chest tightened.

“Looking for someone?”

I spun, a hand already sparking with magic before I recognized the quiet warmth in the voice.

Orion stood a few paces away, the dim light catching his silver hair, his eyes soft and knowing in a way that made my defenses wobble.

“I…thought Slate might still be here,” I admitted.

“Mm. I had a feeling that might be the case.” He stepped closer, hands clasped behind his back, posture calm as always. “Forgive me for following you, but I knew Slate would not be here, and I didn’t want you to find yourself in any danger out here alone.

“How did you know he wouldn’t be here?”

“I saw him heading to the castle half an hour ago, a fully-armored Sentinel at his side.”

I sank onto one of the crystal benches, exhaustion and worry settling over my bones. The adrenaline of training had long since faded, leaving fear and anticipation and too many questions in its place.

“Do you think he’s in danger?”

“I think he can handle himself. He’s been here for a very long time, Bex.”

Orion sat beside me without asking, gaze fixed on the empty ring.

“You pushed yourself hard today,” he said gently.

“I want to understand this power, Orion. I want to learn to control it. I want to know where it comes from.”

The breeze shifted, carrying the faint scent of crystal dust. My pendant warmed against my chest. It had been doing that a lot tonight, as if it had taken on a life of its own after today’s training.

Orion glanced toward it.

“I felt something today,” he said, voice lower. “When you drew on that deeper magic. Something ancient stirred in the air. Dangerous, I think. And beautiful.”

My breath caught.

“How could something ancient be coming from me? All I can tell is that it feels wild. Unstable.”

“Wild can be sacred,” he said. “Unstable can be unbound. Free in a way that cannot be contained. Even if a place such as this.”

I stared at him. “What are you saying?”

He hesitated, then turned fully toward me, his expression softer than I’d ever seen it.

“I do not know what lives in your blood, Bex. But I know this. It is not waking up by accident.”

A chill skated down my spine.

He reached out slowly, as if not to startle me, and set one warm hand over mine.

“There is more inside you than you realize, and the power that you’ve accessed so far is nothing compared to what you are capable of. For whatever reason, this place. This Shard. Is trying to draw it out of you.”

My heart thundered in my chest. He was putting words to everything I felt inside but didn’t want to admit.

“I’m afraid of what I’ll become if I fully embrace this power.”

“You will become yourself,” he said with a slow smile. “The truest version of who you were born to be.”

“Even if that version is dangerous?”

“Especially if she is dangerous.”

Something in his tone felt like a blessing. And a warning.

“The magic inside you will unlock when it is meant to.” He leaned back slightly, gaze drifting upward to the flickering crystals overhead. “You don’t need to chase it. You only need to be ready when it asks you to be.”

I swallowed hard, fear and hope tangled together in my chest.

“And Bex?” he added, rising smoothly to his feet. “There are threads that pull us, even when we don’t yet see where they will lead. Don’t run from the ones woven into your fate.”

I smiled. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

Orion offered me his hand.

“You will, my dear girl. “Someday, you will.”

I took his hand, and together, we slipped back toward the barracks and said goodnight.

SLATE

The Regent’s private audience chamber was colder than the corridors. Colder than the deepest parts of the Shard where the soul stones hummed in their beds.

Colder than her heart.

Purple fire licked the sconces on either wall, casting the room in alternating light and shadow. The walls were veined with threads of gold, pulsing faintly with the Regent’s magic.

The door sealed behind me with a threatening thud.

“Warden Slate.”

Her voice floated from the other side of the room. Deadly in its sweetness.

She didn’t turn or make a move toward me at first. She let me come to her, one echoing footstep at a time, like a man approaching an altar or an executioner’s block.

The difference here was subtle.

Sometimes nonexistent.

When I reached her, she finally turned.

Her amethyst crown glowed with the stolen souls, their power still buzzing through the chamber, brushing against my senses like claws. It would feed her for months.

“Second place.”

She tsked softly, circling me.

“How… disappointing.”

My spine locked straight.

“There was some discord among my Condemned,” I said. “But I’ve dealt with it. We’ll win the final round. We will not let you down.”

Her heels clicked, slow and deliberate until she stopped behind me, close enough that the heat of her breath ghosted my neck. I did not dare pull away.

“I’ve watched you for a long time, Slate. I know every twitch of your blade. Every calculation behind your eyes. And I know when something… or someone… disrupts your rhythm.”

She stepped around me, fingers trailing along my shoulders.

“You’re distracted.”

“I am focused, my Regent.”

I kept my voice smooth. Controlled.

Her smile sharpened as she stepped closer, her face tilting up toward me.

“Do you know what I see when I look at you?”

I knew what she wanted to see.

Obedience. Devotion. Love.

“A loyal Warden,” I said.

She sighed. “A beautiful lie.”

She glided closer, eyes gleaming like polished stone.

“Tell me, Slate… does your little phantom know how you look at her?”

My pulse stuttered.

“Phantom? Do you mean the Condemned who can make herself invisible?” I asked, painting my face with casual confusion. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Ah,” she purred. “Another lie.”

She lifted a finger and traced the line of my throat. It took every ounce of my restraint not to recoil.

“You used to be so easy to read,” she whispered. “So beautifully empty.”

Her voice twisted with something like longing.

“But now? I see the wall you’ve built between us. I see that you’re hiding something.”

“You see what you want to see,” I said quietly.

Her eyes flashed. “I see the truth.”

For a moment, the room vibrated, amethysts humming like the approach of a storm.

“The second round is coming,” she said. “Your lovely little witch will be the target of every construct, every trap, every team member desperate to please me.”

Silence stretched between us like a taut wire.

“And if she survives…”

She leaned in, lips brushing the shell of my ear.

“…you will kill her yourself.”

Ice shot through my veins.

I kept my face blank. A perfect soldier.

“Whatever you wish, Regent,” I said, voice steady and practiced. “But you’ll need to find me a replacement for the Shadow Games that can fill her spot on the team. They were finally learning how to work together.”

She stepped back, studying me, as if waiting for a fracture to show on the surface. I would not let it.

“And Slate?” Her voice sweetened into poison. “If I suspect even for a moment that you might betray me, I will break you both so exquisitely the Shard will remember the sound for centuries.”

I stepped toward her, taking her hand in mine for the first time in years.

She inhaled sharply, her lips parting in surprise as a flash of desire shone in her eyes.

“I would never dream of betraying you…Anna.”

“That name is dead,” she hissed.

“No,” I said quietly. “You buried it, but I still remember.”

Her hand trembled in mine. Not with desire this time, but with a memory that rattled her to her core.

For a heartbeat, I saw the woman she’d been before all this power devoured her. The woman she’d been when she first came to the Shard.

Soft-spoken. Hopeful. Human.

And then it was gone.

Her mask snapped back into place like armor, and she pulled her hand away.

“Say that name again,” she warned, “and I will tear your memories from your skull.

I bowed quickly, as if afraid of her threat.

“As you command,” I said, forcing sadness and regret into my expression. “Good night, Regent.”

I bowed again and then turned, not once looking back, because I knew that if I did, she would see the truth. A truth I hardly wanted to admit to myself.

That she no longer owned me the way she once believed.

That my allegiance was not to Anna or the monster she’d become. It wasn’t even to the Amethyst Shard. Not anymore.

It was to the witch she wanted me to kill.

BEX

The next two days passed in a blur of bruises, sweat, and the unrelenting pace of a Warden determined to turn us into a machine. He trained us harder than he ever had—harder than I thought a human body could endure—and yet he barely looked at me.

Not the way he had before. Not the way that made my heartbeat feel like a secret.

Instead, he was distant. Sharp-edged. Untouchable.

Every time I tried to catch his gaze, he was already turning away, barking orders or correcting Brim’s stance or pushing Calli until she nearly collapsed.

It shouldn’t have bothered me. It shouldn’t have mattered.

But it did.

Something must have made him close himself off like that again. Orion had said Slate was being escorted to the castle the other night, and I wanted to know what the Regent must have said to him.

The closer the Final Game crept, the more I wondered if Slate was preparing us to win, or preparing himself for what he might lose.

We slept in shifts, never alone. Eating together, training together, watching the doors and windows as if the Regent herself might step through the walls at any moment.

She didn’t show up to watch us even once, but the threat of her presence never left.

The morning of the final Game arrived wrapped in a silence that felt too heavy. Too still.

I woke before Calli did, heart hammering like I’d been running all night. The pendant over my chest pulsed, as if it had a heartbeat of its own. Would we return to this room tonight? Victors of the Amethyst Games?

Or would we be souls forever trapped inside a crown?

I dressed slowly, hands trembling. When Calli and I stepped into the corridor, the others were already waiting. Elara sharpening a silvered blade with steady hands, Orion offering a soft nod that steadied my breath, Brim’s expression carved from granite.

And Slate, standing at the center of the hall, armored and unreadable.

“Form up,” he said.

And just like that, it began.

The walk to the arena felt longer than it had during any other Game, though the path never changed. We passed through the same crystalline corridors, the same faint hum of magic vibrating through the walls. The same cold, lavender glow overhead.

But today the air felt charged. Anticipating.

Waiting.

Slate led us through the inner tunnel, armor whispering against itself with every controlled movement. He didn’t speak once, and no one else dared break the silence. Our boots thudded softly over the stone, a single heartbeat shared between six bodies moving as one.

Only when we reached the final archway did Slate stop.

He turned to face us, and for the first time since he’d distanced himself, something broke through the mask. Not warmth, exactly. More like concern.

It eased my nerves a bit.

“I have no idea what you’ll face beyond this door. No matter what, stay together,” he said. “Regent or no Regent, constructs or no constructs. You move as a single unit. If one of you is isolated, you fight your way back to the group as fast as possible. If you can’t, you hold until the group can reach you. Understood?”

We all nodded.

His gaze lingered on me one second longer than it should have.

Then the gate shuddered and began to rise.

Light fractured across the arena floor. Only there was no floor.

It had been replaced by a seemingly bottomless pit.

Spires of obsidian glass rose from nothing, suspended above a vast chasm filled with shifting amethyst shards. Shadows slithered down in the darkness of that pit, and I shivered.

Platforms drifted between chasms, rotating slowly like pieces of a celestial machine. At the center, a single colossal tower spiraled upward into the false sky.

At the very top, a violet banner flapped in the wind, the Regent’s sigil at its center.

The other team stood across the gap. Five figures, masked behind identical amethyst helms, bodies disciplined and unreadable.

Calli raised an eyebrow. “Nice hats. Slate, where’s our stylish hats?”

Slate ignored her except for the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“I’ve never seen this game before,” he said. “It’s no doubt been designed to challenge your powers, specifically. The Regent will have set you up to fail, but if you remember our training, you will not fall.”

He looked to Calli with those last words, and I wondered if he was remembering what happened to her team in the last Games.

She swallowed nervously and nodded.

Adisa floated above the pit in billowing robes, the false sun gleaming off the amethyst threads stitched into the fabric.

“Welcome to a brand new, brutally challenging Game,” she announced. “We call it The Obsidian Tower.”

The crowd roared, eager for blood.

The hovering platforms rotated faster, their edges sparking with light. The tower itself moaned as it shifted and changed, its shape fluid.

“The rules are simple. Both teams will ascend the tower. The first team to reach the summit and claim the banner is the victor.”

Calli whispered, “Simple? She thinks this is simple?”

Adisa raised a hand.

“Be warned. The tower is like a player in this game. It will respond to your magic. It will punish hesitation and reflect your own magic back to you at tenfold strength.”

My stomach turned.

Perfect. A battlefield designed specifically to destroy me.

“And one more thing,” Adisa added lightly, though her eyes glittered with something sharp. “The platforms and stairs may shift at any moment. If you fall, your team may finish the Game without you, but if everyone on one team dies, the remaining team will automatically be declared as the winners, with or without the banner.”

The crowd erupted, eager for blood.

Slate activated the mark on our bodies, and his voice cut through the noise in my head.

“Remember your training,” he said. “Bex—”

“I know,” I whispered. “Stay in formation. Listen to Brim. No going rogue.”

His eyes held mine.

“Exactly.”

Across the arena, the false sun flared bright. Adisa called for the Wardens to join the Regent on the platform beneath the dais, and my entire body lit up with nerves as he left us behind to our fates.

A few moments later, as we stood just at the entrance to the tower, Adisa lowered her arm.

“Let the final round of the Amethyst Games begin.”

A bell tore across the arena.

The platforms detonated into motion.

The first shot upward, nearly knocking us off balance.

“I’ll see how high I can get on my own,” Calli said, shifting as she launched herself into the air. For a moment, she soared. Higher than any of us could reach on our own.

But halfway up, something shimmered above her.

“Watch out,” Orion shouted, throwing a shield up toward Calli.

But it was too late.

A lattice of glowing crystal filaments erupted into existence, spinning itself into a spiderweb of razor-thin threads. Calli slammed straight into it, her wings tangling as the construct constricted around her.

She cried out, a sharp, guttural caw that sliced through the chaos.

“Elara,” Brim barked.

Elara didn’t hesitate. She slashed her palm open with one swift motion and flung her hands upward. Her magic formed into blades that glowed crimson as they sparked against the filaments.

The web didn’t break, though. It tightened, pulling Calli higher. Dragging her toward the outer ring.

Before Elara could send a second strike, the entire tower shifted, its gears grinding. The platforms rotated like pieces of a massive puzzle. The slab I stood on tilted sharply, and the floor dropped away beneath my boots.

“Bex!” Orion lunged, catching my arm just as my heels slipped off the edge.

A metallic groan sliced through the roar of the crowd as a nearby platform detached itself from the side of the tower, hitting me square in the chest.

The blow forced me out of Orion’s grip, and I fell.

Air rushed past my face, my body twisting in freefall until another slab rotated beneath me, catching me so violently my knees buckled.

I hit the crystal hard, my body skidding across its surface as pain exploded across my ribs.

“Orion?” I gasped, pushing up on trembling arms. “Brim? Elara?”

Nothing. Had the fall broken the comms?

I had no idea if they could hear me, but I heard nothing in response. From this side of the tower, I couldn’t see them, either.

My platform spun sideways, drifting around the tower like a dislodged moon. All I could see were slashes of movement far above me. Flashes of crimson from Elara’s magic, Orion’s shields bursting like stars. But every time I craned my neck for a clear look, the platform dragged me out of sight again.

I hadn’t gone rogue, but I was alone anyway. 

The platform dipped suddenly, scraping along the outer structure as if the Shard itself were shoving me toward the edge.

A chill washed up my spine.

This wasn’t random.

The Regent wanted me separated.

Vulnerable.

She wanted me dead, and if I didn’t get up and moving, she was going to get what she wanted.

I pushed to my feet, staggering as the slab rotated beneath me, putting me face to face with two masked figures. Members of the other team.

How in the world had they gotten all the way down here?

But I knew. The Regent didn’t trust Brim to follow through on his threat, so these were her backup plan. Who knew if they were really Condemned in those helmets? For all I knew, they were Sentinels, swapped into the games for one purpose.

To kill me at all cost.

Why else would their faces and bodies be completely covered? Disguised?

The two figures leapt onto my platform, and the first assassin drew a shimmering blade. Instead of metal, it was made of a sharp edge of enchanted crystal. The second flexed their hands and fanned out glowing constructs along their fingers like claws.

Instinctively, I pulled from my own power, disappearing into nothing and searching for a fresh path to escape toward.

The tower reacted to my magic, though, forcing my body back to its solid state, as if it refused to let me phase.

The assassin with claws lunged, and with nowhere to go, I threw up my hands and prayed for a miracle as a thunderous impact shook the tower.

Brim landed between us, roaring as he slammed into the assassin’s side with the force of a falling star.

The two of them collided, smashing into the side of the tower itself. The obsidian wall cracked under the force.

Brim’s expression was pure rage as he grabbed the first assassin by the neck, pulling him into a headlock. The second one moved fast, thrusting their blade toward me, only to hit stone instead as Brim stepped in front of me.

He took full advantage of the assassin’s disbelief and grabbed them with his free arm, pulling them against his body as he turned toward me, determination in his onyx eyes.

I knew what he wanted me to do. We’d trained for it, but as I stared down at the endless pit below, I knew I couldn’t do it.

Not here.

There were no platforms below us to catch him if he fell. Besides, we didn’t know how the tower would react to the blow.

Adisa had said it would reflect the magic back to its user, which meant it would tear me to pieces. Or worse.

There had to be another way.

But before I could, a third assassin from the other team jumped onto Brim’s back, the weight of all three people taking him to his knees.

“Do it,” he shouted. “Now.”

I tried to think of another way, but we were running out of time. The platform could shift again at any moment, forcing us to fall anyway.

I had to trust my team. Trust our training.

I had to do what I’d been asked to do for once in my life, instead of thinking I knew better.

So, I reached deep inside myself, gathering all the rage I’d felt since the moment I saw that shadowy blade slice across my mother’s throat. Shadows slithered across my skin as light erupted from my fingertips. 

The explosion was deafening.

A wave of light struck Brim and the assassins with the force of a hundred lightning strikes. Two of them disintegrated on impact. Their bodies became nothing more than shadow and crystal dust, carried away on the updraft rising from the void below. The shockwave threw me backward against the side of the obsidian tower, my ears ringing and my vision blurred.

Had Brim survived?

I struggled to regain my vision, breathing hard as I sat up and gasped.

One assassin stood at the edge of the fractured platform, wrapped in a shimmer of pale gold magic that clung to his skin like a second armor. A shield or a ward crafted for one purpose.

Surviving my magic.

Either the Regent had been watching us all along, or someone had told her our plan.

The assassin adjusted his stance and lifted a curved crystal blade that caught the violet light of the tower and drank it in as if hungry.

Brim staggered to his feet, his skin marred with scars and cracks from the impact. The assassin twisted suddenly, striking Brim low in the ribs, the blow driven by unnatural strength. Brim gasped and dropped to one knee as the platform shuddered from the impact, tilting again as the tower reconfigured itself.

Brim slid across the cracked crystal surface, fingers scraping for purchase. For one terrible second as our eyes met, I thought he would stop himself. Catch an edge. Haul his weight back up.

But he didn’t.

I lunged toward him, but I was too late.

He went over the side.

A scream tore itself from my throat, but there was no sound behind it. Instead, the world slowed into perfect silence. Every falling piece of crystal dust froze midair. The assassin’s blade hung inches from my neck, suspended in midair. 

Frantic, I looked down to see Brim’s dark eyes frozen wide with shock, his hand reaching toward me.

What in the world was happening?

The dragonfly pendant around my neck went white hot, and magic surged up my spine so suddenly I nearly collapsed. My heartbeat staggered out of rhythm as the entire tower groaned to a halt.

At first, I was the only thing that moved. But then, a burst of light emerged from the pendant, so bright it nearly blinded me. I turned my head to the side, lifting a hand to shield my eyes as a figure stepped through the fractured air.

Dark hair. Moon-pale skin.

Eyes filled with a sorrow I had remembered my entire life without understanding.

“Mom?” I said, breathless.

She reached out, her hand warm as she cupped my cheek.

“Oh, my brave girl. You have grown so much and come so far.”

Her voice sounded like it had when she used to braid my hair by firelight. Soft. Low. Full of a love I’d forgotten how to hold.

“How is this real?” I whispered. “I watched you die when I was six years old. How can you be here?”

She brushed a thumb along my cheek, wiping away tears that fell freely.

“A long time ago, a dear friend owed me a favor.” Her gaze softened. “This friend can do extraordinary things with magic. I asked her to anchor a piece of my soul into this stone. To make sure it was given to you when the world and your magic became too heavy for you to carry it alone.”

My breath fractured.

“Sabine,” I whispered. “She was your friend?”

“I knew one day you’d need more than your shadows and your fear to survive.”

She drew me into her arms, and for a moment I was small again. Safe. The world beyond us didn’t exist.

“I couldn’t save you,” I sobbed against her shoulder. “I couldn’t save Trista, either. I’m so sorry.”

She pulled back, cupping my face with both hands.

“You were just a child. And you lived, because you were brave enough to leave us behind,” she said. “And you must live now, Rebecca. You have no idea how important your magic will become. How important it is to the future.”

I shook my head. “What am I? Mom, am I a shadow demon? Is that why they killed you? Because of me?”

Her expression cracked, pain flickering beneath the surface like candlelight.

“No, my love. You are nothing like the shadow demons who hunted us.”

“Then what am I?”

She held my wrist gently, turning it palm-up.

A faint symbol shimmered beneath the skin at her touch. A shape I remembered from childhood drawings she made on my arm in soot or ink. Curved lines. A doorway.

“When you were born,” she said, “you carried too much power. Too much light fighting against too much darkness. Without the proper training and support, it would have torn you apart, and it would have drawn them to you. So I sealed it. Hid it where only love could awaken it again.”

Her fingertips glowed.

The symbol lifted from my skin like ink rising from parchment.

Pain flared, white and searing, and the entire frozen world around us pulsed once in recognition.

“You are not a shadow demon. You do not turn into shadow. You control them,” she whispered. “You are Veilborn, and there is no one else in all the worlds of the universe like you. You are a doorway between the light and the darkness. Half umbra-born like me. Half portal fae, like your father. The last living heir to two separate ancient lines that could bend reality, move through time, walk between worlds without tearing them open.”

My pulse stuttered. “Veilborn?”

“There’s no time to explain the full history, but remember the name. Seek it out in the ancient library here beneath the city,” she said. “There was a time when there were more of your kind. Veilborn children from different lineages. But like many things, the Order of Shadows corrupted their magic, using children like you to open doors they had no right to touch.”

Her palms pressed over my heart.

“When shadow demons came for all the Veilborn, you survived because I kept your magic hidden. But it is awake now, and it will not sleep again. You must learn to shape it, or it will devour you.”

“Why now?” My voice broke. “Why are you here? When everything is falling apart?”

“Because this is the moment you needed me most.”

The assassin behind me flickered like a dying flame as time strained against the magic binding it. My mother’s face crumpled with tears as she drew me closer.

“We don’t have long,” she said. “You must listen.”

I clung to her hands. “Please don’t go. I can’t lose you again.”

“I cannot stay,” she said, holding me tightly, her forehead pressed to mine. “When time resumes, the assassin will strike. You must defend yourself. You must use what I’ve unsealed.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Your magic knows,” she said. “Trust yourself, and it will not fail you.”

Tears slipped down her face.

“Survive this, Bex. Not just because you must, but because you were born for more than pain. More than running. More than fear.”

The tower shuddered as time began to crack back into motion.

The light around her dimmed.

“Mom, please.”

Her hand touched the pendant one last time.

“When the moment is darkest,” she whispered, “you can use this to call for Sabine. But be careful. Her help always carries a cost.”

Her form wavered, but I clung to her despite knowing our time was almost over.

“Mom, I love you.”

She touched my face one last time, a sad smile on her lips as her form dissolved into light.

“I love you, too, my sweet girl. Forever.”

Time snapped back.

The assassin’s blade swung toward my neck, and magic surged up my arms like fire and storm and memory.

I didn’t think.

I didn’t aim.

I didn’t hesitate.

The Veilborn power my mother had unlocked awakened with a roar.

A shockwave ripped outward from my palms, bursts of shadow and blinding white light intertwined like living threads. The air cracked, bending around the force as the tower groaned beneath us.

The assassin never even had time to scream.

They disintegrated into dust.

Not burned. Not blasted off the platform.

Unmade entirely.

I staggered, gasping as I remembered. Brim was still falling. I knelt down, determined to find him in the darkness.

I stretched my power toward the shadows that lined the tower. Elongated them. Forced them to become solid like a net beneath him. I had no idea how I was doing it. Only that something inside me knew had taken over.

For a heartbeat, Brim hung suspended above the abyss, weightless and shocked, cradled by shadows I’d somehow manipulated and made solid.

I called to them, pulling Brim upward toward the platform next to me, dropping him softly at my side.

Brim was safe, but above me, Calli screamed. She was free from the net, but she’d been forced down to a lower platform by one of the two remaining members of the opposing team.

They weren’t coming after me at all, anymore. 

They were going for the win.

The tower groaned under the strain of so much magic. Crystals flickered. Stair segments shook loose. The air warped, almost like heat rising from stone.

Something tugged behind my ribs.

I didn’t have time to think.

I stepped forward, and the ground vanished.

A seam of pale light split open beneath my foot.

My body moved through it, guided by instinct more than choice.

The same cold magic I’d felt when I first walked through the mirror portal into this world consumed me again. My entire reality seemed to flip inside out as I passed through some dark void and stumbled out onto a higher ledge of the tower, only a few strides below the banner.

The tower had not done that.

I had.

Somehow, I’d opened a portal and stepped through.

Just below me, Calli reached one of the climbers from the other team and kicked him back. He fell to one knee.

Above me, on the next platform up, Elara created a stair-like webbing made of blood and began to climb it toward the final ledge.

Calli screamed. “Elara, watch out. It’s going to fall.”

At that moment, the platform just beneath Elara fell into the void, ripping her makeshift ladder into pieces. She fell so fast, tumbling toward the darkness, her eyes wide as if she were on some grand adventure. There was no fear there. Only exhilaration. And something else as her eyes met mine.

Complete trust.

I took a deep breath, directing the light side of my magic to the empty space below her. The air rippled as another seam opened just in time for Elara to fall through it.

I realized that inside my mind’s eye, I could direct the portal. Open it anywhere I wanted. Anywhere I envisioned.

I looked up, watching the banner snapping in the wind above me as the final Condemned from the opposing side reached toward it. A crow flew past him, her beak ripping into his shoulder and knocking him temporarily off balance. The Condemned threw a bright green spell toward her.

I couldn’t save Calli and hold Elara’s portal open at the same time, but just then, from several platforms below, Orion shouted as the Condemned’s poison splattered and hissed against one of his shields, thrown just in time to keep Calli safe.

Our eyes met, and he nodded to me, knowing we were almost there.

I directed the light toward the final, top platform, and in an instant, Elara emerged, breathless and wild-eyed as she grabbed the banner.

A ringing silence fell over the tower.

Adisa’s voice rose through the still air, sharp and resonant.

“Victory to Warden Slate’s team.”

The crowd erupted as the floor of the arena reappeared and the tower folded into itself, bringing all of its spires, staircases, and platforms down with a shudder, reuniting our team.

Whole.

Alive.

Victorious.

For a heartbeat none of us moved. Then Calli slammed into me, shifting back into human form as she wrapped her arms tight around my neck, laughing and crying in the same breath.

“We did it,” she said, voice cracking. “We actually did it.”

Elara arrived next, hauling me into a fierce hug that lasted one solid second before she pushed me back and inspected me like I might fall apart.

“Still alive,” she said. “Good. I don’t have the energy to avenge you today.”

Orion placed one steady hand on my shoulder. “I told you the magic would unlock when it was meant to. You were extraordinary.”

Brim reached us last, limping, his breath ragged. When he stopped in front of me, our eyes met. “Thank you.”

The weight of it hit hard as he embraced me, his arms dusty and cracked.

The arena roared as the false sky pulsed with light. Magical fireworks exploded over the Amethyst arena, and though I looked for the Regent on her dais, she was gone. Her throne abandoned.

We came together in a knot of arms and bruises, five bodies leaning into each other because none of us could quite stand on our own yet. For the first time, it felt like we weren’t just a team because the Shard had shoved us together.

We’d chosen each other. Survived for each other.

And I knew now, without a doubt, that we could trust each other.

Calli wiped her eyes. “Think Slate will give us one of his famous motivational speeches? Or criticize us for taking so long to win?”

I smiled, breath still uneven, and turned toward the entry tunnel where he’d be waiting when a Sentinel stepped into our path.

“Condemned,” he said. “You are summoned to the throne room immediately.”

My stomach tightened. Around me, the others stilled.

Brim straightened. Elara cursed under her breath. Orion’s hand hovered just slightly nearer his side, as if ready to shield us all if needed.

Calli laced her fingers through mine.

Without a word, we followed, walking together down the long corridor carved from violet crystal. The crowd’s roaring faded behind us.

Slate slipped into our formation, shoulders rigid, his eyes dark with a fear he tried, and failed, to mask

At the end of the hall, massive doors slid open, and every one of us froze.

Because the woman sitting on the amethyst throne, draped in violet and shadow was not the Regent.

“Priestess Black,” Slate said, immediately dropping to one knee before the throne.

Every guard in the room, including the tall, cat-like women dressed in black with their amethyst collars at their necks, bowed low.

The rest of us followed.

“Rise,” she said, her soft voice commanding us.

Her daughter, the Regent, appeared around the side of the throne, her eyes red from tears and frustration. Her face tight with worry as the Priestess stood.

Her eyes brushed over the team like we were clutter.

Then they stopped on me, nearly pinning me to the spot.

“So,” she murmured, stepping toward me with a thin smile. “This is the little phantom my daughter cannot seem to kill, no matter how hard she tries.”

“I never—”

“Say another word, and I’ll replace you faster than you can beg for your life.”

The Regent’s mouth snapped closed, fury like a storm gathering in her eyes.

My breath hitched, and Calli’s hand found mine, steadying me.

The Priestess smiled, slow and amused.

“My daughter has always been impatient. Impulsive. And entirely too confident in her control of this Shard.”

She waved a dismissive hand.

“I’ve cleaned up her mistakes before. But you…”

She stepped closer until my pulse stuttered.

“You are not a mistake. You are a treasure.”

Her gaze passed over me.

“I felt the tower react to you. Some kind of disturbance inside that fight that I can’t explain. I would like to know what happened to you in there.”

Slate took a step forward, his body coiled tightly, but the Priestess held up a hand, commanding him to stop.

“You will come to my tower tomorrow at dawn,” she said. “Alone.”

My heart stopped.

“For what?” I asked before I could stop myself.

She smiled again, beautiful and lethal.

Far too young to be the Regent’s mother, although no doubt using some type of magic to make herself look that way. So many witches in the Order used glamours, but hers was a beauty unlike any I’d ever seen before.

Pure vitality. Almost intoxicating beauty.

If we all believed the Regent to be powerful, she was nothing compared to the Priestess.

“Since you have won great glory for my Shard, I will allow your question to go unpunished for now,” she said. “But you will come to me tomorrow simply because I have commanded it.”

A beat of silence.

“And to remind my daughter,” she added lightly, “that she is not the only power in this Shard worth fearing.”

The doors behind us opened on their own.

“Go,” she said. “Celebrate and rest. You have earned a feast before your real training begins. Tonight, you’ll be moved to new rooms here inside the castle, where you will be rewarded for your victory and your loyalty. Because when the Shadow Games begin, I expect you to be ready. Win those Games or I will kill you myself.”

We didn’t breathe until we were in the hallway again.

Calli finally whispered, “So. We’re basically doomed.”

Elara laughed. “Perhaps, but at least we will live like royalty before death comes for us.”

The throne room doors closed, and the moment we stepped into the outer hall, sound crashed over us. Cheering, music, the melody of glass against glass.

A celebration.

Sentinels guided us down a corridor into a vast chamber glittering with amethyst chandeliers and crowded with nobles, Wardens, and influential figures from across the Shard. Tables overflowed with rich foods, glowing potions, and spiced elixirs that heated the air.

Lavender stood to one side of the room, her eyes meeting mine briefly as she nodded her head and smiled. She placed a hand on her chest, and I knew she understood what had happened to me inside the obsidian tower. I would need to find her later when we could be alone. I needed to know what she could tell me about the Veilborn.

Beside me, Calli nearly vibrated with delight.

Elara immediately went hunting for trouble. Or dessert. Possibly both.

Orion drifted toward a quiet corner with a cup of tea and a small plate of cakes.

Brim, however, barely made it two steps before a wave of overexcited Condemned surged toward us, congratulating the team.

Calli squeaked as the crowd jostled her forward, right onto Brim’s lap as he sat heavily on the nearest cushioned bench.

His eyes went wide. His dark cheeks flushed maroon.

Calli blinked up at him, perched awkwardly on his thigh.

The two of them shared a long, awkward look before Calli quickly stood, laughing so hard with nerves she nearly tripped and fell onto him again.

Elara elbowed me, rejoining the group with a very large glass of what I hoped was red wine. “I give them two weeks.”

I smiled as warmth bubbled in my chest. I may have grown up without a family, but this was my family now, and I knew that we would risk everything for each other. No matter what.

But there was one member of this newfound family who was painfully absent.

Slate was nowhere to be found.

I scanned faces, shadows, every entrance.

Nothing.

On my way to check a different corridor, however, I slipped into the shadows as a Sentinel mentioned his name.

“The Regent wants to speak with him, but I haven’t been able to find him,” he said.

“Warden Slate? The last I saw, he was headed toward the gardens. I searched but couldn’t find him, though. Maybe check the terrace.”

That was all I needed.

While the others laughed and pressed cups into each other’s hands, I slipped into the shadows and followed the lantern-lit path down the back corridor. My heartbeat thudded too loud.

I told myself I didn’t care if I found him or not.

That I simply wanted to thank him.

To ask him what I should say to the Priestess.

Lies, all of them. What I wanted was something I knew I shouldn’t want. Especially not here.

But I wanted it anyway.

I reached the courtyard archway and froze.

He was there in the darkness at the edge of the garden.

And he wasn’t alone.

I let go of the solid shape of my body, slipping into the thin place between shadow and light. My form blurred, vanished, until nothing of me remained but silence.

A tall woman with a thin collar of citrines glittering around her neck stood with him, making my stomach twist with a jealousy I had no right to feel.

She was stunningly beautiful, and her voice carried like venom in silk.

“You were told to kill her,” she said. “And yet she lives. You saw her out there today. She’s getting stronger. More unstable by the hour. She’s got the attention of the Amethyst Priestess, Slate. If we don’t eliminate her soon, she’ll expose us all.”

“I said I’ll handle her.”

“Why do I feel like, after all this time, I can’t trust you anymore? That you care more for her than you’re telling me?”

“You’re the one spinning fairytales, Nyx. She means nothing to me. She’s a tool. A piece on the board. That’s all.”

“So you would kill her if it comes to it?” the woman pressed.

A long silence stretched into eternity before he answered.

“If I have to.”

The words nearly broke my heart, and it took everything not to make a sound or step out of the shadows to confront them both.

His next breath faltered, and he lifted his head just a fraction. Toward the shadows where I stood.

Like he felt me break.

“You need to go,” he said, and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to the woman or to me.

Either way, I fled, reaching the empty corridor before the tears finally fell, hot against my cheeks.

I told myself he meant nothing to me, either.

That the bond between us was a lie.

But as I pressed a hand to my chest, the runes beneath his skin ignited in my memory, bright enough to burn away every doubt.

We were bonded in ways neither of us understood.

Ways he was desperate to deny.

And deep beneath the Shard, something ancient stirred in answer. It had awakened the moment I arrived here. A favor to my mother wrapped in some ancient game played not just by the Order but also by Sabine, a fae of unimaginable power.

We were all just pieces being moved along some mighty chessboard.

Slate wasn’t my enemy.

He never had been.

He was something far more dangerous than that.

And now. After today. After everything my mother had unsealed. So was I.

Because in that moment, standing there with my heart broken and my magic flaring, I knew that I would not be just another pawn in their game.

I was going to destroy it.

THE END OF BOOK 1!!! Oh my goodness, ya’ll! I have had this world in my head for so so long, and it’s finally REAL. Thank you for listening and reading along! All BCS members will receive a free copy of the ebook coming December 5th. Thank you all so much!