Kaela stirred before the dawn broke. Her ribs ached, but her body was already doing what it always did mending without permission, stitching itself together like nothing ever happened. She blinked slowly, eyelids heavy, consciousness dragging itself back from the abyss.
The world came into focus: fractured stone, faint morning light filtering through the shattered ruins of Velcrath, and the sound of breathing nearby.
Seralyn.
Her voice floated in the stillness, so soft Kaela almost convinced herself she imagined it.
"Why do I care if you live?"
Kaela's eyes flicked open fully. Her breath caught.
She didn't speak, didn't move, didn't let on she was awake.
She just listened.
The silence that followed was heavier than any scream.
Then Seralyn stood. Her footfalls were quiet, measured, as if she too were carrying something fragile that might break.
Kaela waited until the footsteps faded before groaning quietly and shifting herself upright. Pain lanced through her ribs, but she bore it with clenched teeth.
She ran her hand over her side, winced, and muttered, "Still breathing. Still a mistake."
The faintest trace of a smile tugged at her lips bitter, self-aware.
She remembered the fight. The wraith. Seralyn's voice trembling. The pressure of her hands. The whisper.
Her heart beat too fast.
She stood slowly, found her footing, and followed the trail Seralyn had taken.
Seralyn didn't go far, but she moved fast.
Past crumbling towers, down collapsed steps where frost bloomed unnaturally along the edges. The ruins of Velcrath seemed to shift behind her, subtly, like the city watched and rearranged itself as she passed.
She needed to breathe.
She needed space.
What she'd whispered she hadn't meant for Kaela to hear. But she had meant it.
She hated that truth more than she hated the Dread Coven.
She found an overlook a shattered balcony with a view over the dead city. Pale light shimmered in the frost coating the rooftops. Mist curled around spires like ghostly ribbons.
Seralyn gripped the stone ledge and closed her eyes.
Kaela. That cursed, smug, reckless woman who fought like she didn't care if she died. Who dove into danger like it owed her something. Who made Seralyn feel in ways she hadn't allowed herself to in years.
"Damn you," she whispered to the wind. "Why couldn't you just stay away?"
Behind her, Velcrath stirred. A faint wind coiled around her ankle. Cold. Unnatural.
Seralyn straightened.
The wind carried a scent blood and heat and fire.
She turned.
And saw it.
A flicker.
Kaela.
On her knees in a sea of flame, surrounded by shadows.
Her face pale. Her eyes wide. Her mouth moving but no sound coming.
Then a blade a curved, bone-hilted thing driving straight through her chest.
Seralyn screamed.
"KAELA!"
She turned and ran, heart thundering.
Back through the corridor of broken statues.
Back over the frost-slick stones.
Back to where Kaela had been resting.
Gone.
No body.
No blood.
No trail.
Only the echo of her own voice, still ringing in her ears.
"KAELA!"
Kaela's world spun.
She'd gone after Seralyn or tried to but the city had shifted around her. One hallway twisted into another. What was once a straight path fractured into a spiral staircase leading down… and down… and down.
Until the air turned sharp.
Until she couldn't find the sky.
Until fire lit the walls.
She stood now in what looked like a great hall, ancient and half-submerged in lava. Magma oozed between the cracks in the floor, throwing up bitter orange light. Glowing runes pulsed on the stone columns.
The city had taken her deeper. Into its bones.
And she wasn't alone.
From the far end of the hall, a figure emerged.
Masculine.
Armored in obsidian, with a wolf's skull for a helm and a blade that shimmered red-hot.
Kaela dropped into a stance immediately. "Let me guess. You're the welcoming committee?"
The figure didn't speak. It just raised its blade.
Kaela sighed. "Figures."
They clashed.
Steel met heat. Her daggers sparked against his blade, each strike forcing her back. He was fast, impossibly so, and strong in a way that rattled her bones. She dodged, rolled, kicked off a crumbling wall and landed behind him, slashing.
She drew blood.
Or she would've if he bled.
Instead, black smoke hissed from the cut. The armor sealed itself again.
"Okay. Creepy and immortal. Great."
She flipped back, chest heaving.
The figure moved again, faster.
His blade struck her side ripping flesh.
Kaela screamed.
She hit the ground hard. Her ribs shrieked in protest.
The figure loomed above her, blade rising for the killing blow.
Then
A shriek, not hers.
Seralyn.
Her voice echoed from above.
Kaela turned her head, dazed.
Just in time to see a burst of violet light slam into the ceiling above them. A crack splintered through the stone. Dust rained down.
The figure turned.
Kaela acted.
She drove a hidden dagger into the joint of his armor, under the arm.
This time, the scream was his.
The figure staggered back, and Kaela rolled away.
The ceiling collapsed.
Rock. Fire. Dust. Everything fell.
Kaela was swallowed in the chaos.
---
Above, Seralyn skidded to a halt at the edge of a newly formed crater. Dust and fire roared upward. She screamed Kaela's name again and again.
No answer.
Just heat.
Just silence.
Just the sound of her heart breaking.