Page 181 of The Blood Rites

It isn’t his fault, though. This is the Mother Shard’s doing. The world was broken long before we got here. Nyxen and Vaelis. Marissa—fuck, Marissa, she was a child. They were all dead the moment they arrived here. Maybe it was always going to end like this.

But I can’t say those words either. I can’t because I know he wouldn’t believe me. I’m not sure I believe it either.

I reach for his hand and place it over my heart. He blinks, just once, and I see a sliver of life in his eyes.

Serraith snorts, then laughs, the sound echoing through the room. “Are you two going to fuck right here?”

His voice is ragged but full of life, the only thing in this place that doesn't feel dead.

I want to spit at him. But I don’t have the spirit.

Atheron turns, slowly, with the grace of a Crown. “Don’t embarrass yourself, Serraith. They’re the only interesting thing left.”

Serraith shrugs, shoulders still trembling, and wanders out of the chamber.

There’s something seriously wrong with these people. I don’t even have the energy to be angry. All I feel is exhaustion, heavy enough to sit in my lungs.

Kael squeezes my hand, then lets go and forces himself upright. He looks into the fountain, but doesn’t say anything.

Atheron clears his throat. “One trial to go, Prince. Let’s see how this ends.”

Kael ignores him.

I close my eyes, the noise around me blurring into the background. My body is weary, but my mind aches more. I think about Nyxen, the way he held me at the end, how he never let go. I think about Vaelis, the way he knelt and gave the last of himself to protect his prince.

I think about Marissa, and Alaris, and all the others.

I wonder what will be left of me at the end of this.

Kael’s hand finds my shoulder again, gentle this time, and I lean into it.

Across the room, Atheron is watching us, jaw clenched. He’s waiting for a weakness, for an opening, but he has finally learned to be afraid.

The fountain runs. The Mana hums. The world goes on.

I open my eyes to find Kael looking at me. His eyes are clear. He leans in, pressing his forehead to mine.

“Don’t leave me,” he whispers.

“I won’t,” I say, and for the first time, I almost believe it.

But it isn’t possible.

The next trial will come, and we will face it.

Only one can survive.

But for this moment, at least, I am not alone.

Twenty Four

Everyone is gone.

The world feels hollowed out by their absence, just a crystal shell with nothing inside but ghosts and the constant buzz of the Mother Shard’s power behind every wall.

Kael sits at the base of the fountain, legs splayed, back pressed to the marble. He stares out at the empty room as if he’s waiting for someone to come kill us both.

I sit a few metres away, cross-legged. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend I was meditating, but I’m not. I’m cataloguing every change in his eyes, every twitch of muscle in his forearms, every shallow breath. The hum of the Embrace is louder than usual—there are no Offerings to compete with the noise, no voices, no movement. Just the endless, heartless thrum.