The forest at the edge of the high cliffs was quiet, the kind of quiet that pressed against your ears. Kaelin moved in the shadow of Sova, his steps light on the frost-covered ground. He had not spoken much since the ambush. The image of the man's lifeless eyes still followed him, slipping into his thoughts like an unwelcome shadow.
Ahead, the trees gave way to stone ruins. Tall walls, broken and half-swallowed by roots, stood like jagged teeth against the gray sky. Faded banners clung to the crumbling towers, the once-proud crest of House Aeryn almost erased by time and weather.
"This was an outpost of your bloodline," Sova said quietly. "Before the Guilds took everything. The heirloom we seek is still inside, hidden where even they could not find it."
Kaelin's chest tightened. He tried to picture what this place had been like when it lived. Soldiers in silvered armor, wind banners snapping in the cold air, voices calling out over the walls. But the images were hazy, stitched together from scraps of memory and stories he barely understood.
"What is it?" he asked.
Sova's mouth curved in the faintest smile. "A key. To what, you will learn when you hold it."
They slipped through a gap in the outer wall, the stones slick beneath Kaelin's fingers. Inside, the air was heavy with the scent of damp and decay. Hallways collapsed into mounds of rubble, but here and there carvings of waves and storm clouds still marked the stone, stubborn echoes of a forgotten rule.
The silence broke with a low, distant rumble. Sova stopped, his head turning slightly. "We are not alone."
Kaelin's grip on his staff tightened.
They moved deeper, navigating through broken archways and winding staircases. The light grew dim as they reached the inner hall, its roof half caved in. At the center stood a cracked pedestal, frost clinging to its base. Resting on it was a silver circlet inlaid with a pale blue stone that seemed to glow faintly in the dark.
Kaelin felt the pull the moment his eyes landed on it. The air shifted around him, the cold in his veins answering without his command.
"That is yours by blood," Sova said. "But take care. A relic remembers its master, and it tests those who would claim it."
Kaelin stepped forward, each breath colder than the last. His fingers brushed the circlet, and a shiver ran up his arm. Images burst in his mind — a woman crowned in ice, leading soldiers through a storm, her voice calling his name not as it was now but as something older.
Then the rumble came again, louder, and the ground shook. From the shadows at the far end of the hall, a figure emerged. He wore the deep green cloak of the Storm Guild, the fabric scorched and torn. His armor was marked with runes that flickered like lightning under his skin.
"Thief," the man's voice was sharp, his eyes bright with crackling power. "You stand in Guild territory. That crown belongs to the Guild now."
Lightning arced between his hands, the crackle filling the air.
Sova's staff tapped against the stone. "An enforcer. Stronger than the thugs you faced before. If you fight, you will have to control your storm, not let it control you."
Kaelin's heartbeat quickened. His hand tightened around the circlet. The thought of giving it up felt impossible, as if part of him would be torn away.
The enforcer stepped closer, the smell of ozone sharp in the air. "Hand it over, boy, and maybe I let you crawl away."
Kaelin met his gaze. The cold in his blood surged, not with panic this time but with defiance. "You want it," he said, "then try to take it."
The wind began to stir, carrying with it the scent of snow.
Somewhere deep inside, the storm waited to be unleashed.
...
The Storm Guild enforcer's lightning still hissed in the air when another sound rolled over the ruins, a deep roar, like a forge exhaling. The cracked walls glowed faintly as the light of approaching fire painted them in shifting gold and red.
Sova's eyes narrowed. "Not one, but two. They are hunting in pairs now."
The lightning enforcer's smirk faded. "About time you showed up," he muttered toward the shadows, though his gaze never left Kaelin. "Finish it quickly. Burn it all."
From the far side of the hall, a figure stepped into view. She was tall and broad-shouldered, her armor darkened with soot, the seams pulsing faintly like veins of molten rock. Her hair was the color of coal and her eyes glowed with an ember's heart. Heat poured off her in waves, warping the air.
Kaelin's grip tightened around the silver circlet. The cold within him recoiled at the suffocating heat.
"Another one of your Guild pets," Sova said, voice like ice.
The woman smiled, and it was the kind of smile that promised only destruction. "I am here for one purpose. The Guild wants no trace of Aeryn left standing, not even in the dirt."
She spread her hands, and fire licked up her arms, gathering at her palms. "The relic comes with me, the boy dies, and this place turns to ash."