Page 148 of The Blood Rites

Nyxen gestures for me to stay put as he melts into the dark, vanishing like a lost thought. I kneel in the cold, arms wrapped around my ribs, fighting the urge to run.

Thunder rends the air, rumbling high above. Bolts of lightning fork across the sky, filling every gap in the canopy with white brilliance. I’ve never seen lightning like this, even in the worst of the storms back in the Light Dominion.

Nyxen returns, and a sound catches in my throat. These Shadowborn. They’re like ghosts.

He has shadows at his fingertips, writhing and deadly. “No one ahead,” he says. “The noise is just branches. There’s a cave entrance just up ahead, but it looks like it heads underground.”

The earth trial. Of course.

I glance down at Nyxen’s shadows. He notices and grins, but it’s humourless.

“Force of habit,” he says, flicking his hand with careless ease, and the shadows disperse.

“I thought you’d changed your mind about killing me,” I say, running a hand through my hair.

He considers, then smirks, properly now. “Not yet,” he says.

“Not yet?” I grimace.

He stands, brushing the moss from his knees. “Kael would be upset, remember.”

“You don’t care about that,” I say.

He looks at me, something almost human crossing his eyes. “No. I don’t.”

He walks away, expecting me to follow, and I do.

After a while, he speaks. “If you die, I’m worried he will do something stupid.”

I swallow. “What if it’s an accident? Like the wave.”

He glances over his shoulder. “I don’t think that will change the outcome. Hence, my problem.”

He leads us a little further into a clearing, until we stand at the entrance to the cave. The tip of the Mother Shard is visible here, the death counter suspended on its face. The number ten glows like a wound.

The light sprites have descended, swirling so close it’s like walking through a cloud of embers. The mouth of the cave is black and wide, sprites drifting in and out of it as if the cave itself is breathing.

Nyxen wanders the edge of the clearing, scanning the trees. “I think we’re meant to go in,” he says.

Obviously. But I say nothing, just nod.

A chill runs up my spine as a beam of golden-red light shoots into the sky from somewhere far away, illuminating the clouds as it careens towards the Mother Shard.

It pulses, relishing its meal.

The zero flickers. Just once, blinking as it becomes a one.

Ten becomes eleven.

I drop to my knees, fists in the dirt. My breath hitches and my hands shake. A sob breaks out of me, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand again. “No. No, no—”

Please don’t let it be her.

Nyxen watches, unmoved. “The Mother Shard is not kind,” he says.

I look up at the number in the sky, wishing it would go back, wishing this was all a mistake.

But the number stays.