Page 69 of Orc's Veil

“I know.” I don’t let go of her. “I know, just—give me one more second.”

I press my forehead to hers. Breathe her in. Feel the claiming pulse between us—steady now, strong, no longer strained by distance or torture. We’re both alive. We both survived. The monster that tried to destroy us is nothing but fading light and escaping souls.

“Okay.” I pull back, help her to her feet. “Now we run.”

We don’t get far.

The Shadow Court is collapsing faster than we can run. The corridors we passed through to get here are gone—replaced by churning void, by darkness that swallows everything it touches.The walls are dissolving. The floor is cracking. Reality itself is coming undone.

And then I feel it.

The Veil.

Not just trembling. Not just weakening. Dying.

“No.” Eirene stops running, her face going white. “No, no, no?—”

I feel it in the brand over my heart—the same brand that connects me to her, to the boundary, to everything she’s spent eight years protecting. The Sovereign’s final act. Its last revenge.

It didn’t just die. It tore the Veil open as it fell.

Not a breach. Not a crack. A total collapse. The barrier between the shadow-realm and reality is coming apart, and there’s nothing left to hold it in place.

“Eirene.” I grab her arm, try to pull her toward where I hope the exit might be. “We have to go. Now.”

“Go where?” She turns to look at me, and there’s devastation in her eyes. “The Veil is dying, Varkhul. Everything I’ve spent my life protecting—everyone who depends on the boundary to keep them safe?—”

“I know.” I pull her close, wrap my arms around her. “I know. But we can’t fix it if we’re dead.”

The ground beneath us lurches. Cracks spider out from where we’re standing, spreading in all directions. Through the cracks, I can see—nothing. Pure void. The absence of existence itself.

“There’s no exit.” Eirene’s voice is hollow. “The path we came in is gone. The Shadow Court is dissolving. We’re trapped in here, and when it finishes collapsing?—”

“Then we find another way.” I tighten my grip on her. “You’re the boundary witch. You became the Veil, you said. Part of its fabric. If anyone can find a way out of this, it’s you.”

She stares at me. Blood is still dripping from her wounds—slower now, weakening. She’s given too much. Used too much. The power that transformed her into a living weapon is fading, leaving behind a woman who’s barely standing.

But she’s not giving up. I can see it in her eyes—the steel beneath the exhaustion, the determination that’s kept her bleeding for the world for eight years.

“The Veil is dying.” She closes her eyes. “But I’m still part of it. And if I’m part of it?—”

“You can control where it falls.”

Her eyes snap open. “Not control. But… redirect. Maybe.”

“Then do it.” I cup her face in my hands, make her look at me. “Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs. I’m with you.”

“It might kill us both.”

“I’ve been ready to die since I walked into the Shadow Court to save you.” I press my lips to her forehead—brief, fierce, a promise. “At least this way, we go out fighting.”

She laughs. It’s a broken sound, half-sob and half-hysteria, but it’s still a laugh. “You’re insane.”

“I claimed you, didn’t I?” I grin—the first real grin I’ve managed since the Sovereign dragged me through the tear. “Sanity was never my strong suit.”

The ground lurches again. More violently this time. A chunk of the floor falls away into void, and I pull Eirene back just before she can tumble after it.

“Now or never, witch.”