Page 125 of The Last Remaining Light

Beautiful and alive.

Terrified.

He loved her so much it physically hurt him.

“El,” he said roughly. “It’s time to go.”

She stared at him for half a heartbeat before nodding. She knew they could no longer stay there.

Caelyn forced himself away from her before she could feel the unnatural cold radiating from his skin. Frost spread across the stone beneath every step he took.

He watched as she unlocked the door and the chamber doors flew open.

Lora stormed inside first, carrying an astrylite flare crystal in one hand like she intended to bludgeon someone with it. Alyra followed right behind her.

Both were dressed in sleeping robes.

Both stopped as soon as they crossed the threshold.

“What in the hells happened? No, never mind. It doesn't matter—we need to go!” Lora blurted.

Freezing mountain air howled through the broken window, whipping curtains and loose pages into a frantic dance. Frost coated the stone beneath Caelyn's feet, spreading farther with every passing heartbeat. Blood ran freely down his shoulders from the crystal shards still embedded in his back.

The blackness had consumed his eyes.

Silence.

Then Lora pointed directly at Caelyn.

“Elowynn,” she said with startling calm, “why is there a man bleeding in your chambers during Blackwake?”

“...Wait.” Her eyes widened. “You're the man from earlier.” She pointed harder, as though that somehow helped. “You actually found her. Why are your eyes black?”

“This feels like exceptionally poor timing for those questions, beloved,” Alyra murmured.

“I disagree entirely,” Lora said without looking away from Caelyn. “I have several very important questions.”

Caelyn almost laughed.

Elowynn moved quickly between them.

“Lora!” she snapped. “Get yourself together. We do not have time for this!”

Lora stared hard at Caelyn now, her gaze assessing. Her eyes dropped toward the black frost spreading across the floor.

She sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh stars. Oh… dead stars!” The humor vanished from her face, and then Alyra understood it, too.

Neither woman moved.

Caelyn felt the tension in the room pull taut like drawn wire.

Finally, Lora exhaled a harsh breath through her nose, tossing her hands in the air in exasperation.

“Well,” she said. “That is spectacularly terrible.”

Elowynn decided that was a fair assessment overall.

Another wave of resonance rushed upward beneath the city, and this time the entire eastern tower lurched sideways.