The Pathkeeper's camp was not meant to be found, but Kael found it anyway.
Hidden in a pocket of woods where the trees grew in a spiral, she had erected wards of woven silver thread and etched glyphs. Their resonance sang softly to the Threadbound—a song Kael could hear now, just faintly, ever since the sixth thread fused beneath his sternum.
He approached low to the earth, unseen.
The sixth binding was... different. It whispered in his sleep, murmured thoughts that weren't his. It hadn't just given him access to a thread—it had stolen a living destiny, an active path. And in doing so, it had made him a rival to the very order he once bowed beneath.
Threadthief. Weaverbane. Hollowbound.
The titles hissed in his head.
He crouched in the trees, watching the Pathkeeper through slitted eyes. She knelt by her fire, no longer veiled, her silver-threaded mask resting beside her. Her features were sharp, eyes too clear, skin faintly etched with lines of runes along her jawline.
In another life, she had kissed him once. Life fourteen. She had another name then—Veyna.
She hadn't recognized him.
That was good.
But he couldn't risk her lingering.
Kael drew the memory-iron shard again. He pressed a thumb to its edge, blood welling instantly.
The circle flared beneath the dirt. Hidden, quiet.
He whispered, "Let her forget her vow."
A thread drifted from her spine, slow and reluctant—silver, old, deeply seated. Stronger than Rilo's.
He reached for it.
The thread snapped taut—and resisted.
Kael's eyes widened. The thread twisted violently.
She knew.
Veyna turned before he could recoil. A wave of thread energy lashed out, carving a groove into the bark beside him. Her eyes glowed with pure silver.
"You." Her voice was thunder and memory.
Kael fled.
Branches snapped. The woods blurred.
He barely reached the edge of the glyph-ring before another pulse struck him, tearing through the sixth thread like a hot knife. His bones screamed.
But he crossed the threshold.
And the woods went still.
She did not follow.
Could not. The Hollowbound cannot be chased beyond a certain distance—Kael had learned that from the Pale Hollow itself.
Still, she had seen him.
A Pathkeeper had looked into his face and lived.
And that meant war was coming.