The world turned upside-down—
and kept turning.
One moment the Cloister's floor was beneath their feet.
The next, it was the ceiling, and they were falling upward into a sky made of books.
Leo had half a heartbeat to feel Seraphine's grip rip off his wrist before gravity lost faith in itself. Black water reappeared mid-air, hanging in perfect spheres the size of cathedral bells. Each sphere reflected a different death.
Cassian, flayed alive by wedding lace.
Mira, arrows jutting from her eyes like broken branches.
Seraphine, burning from the inside out, wings collapsing into ash.
And himself—hundreds, thousands of him—all alone, all smiling, all holding something that bled light.
The spheres burst.
SFX: SHRRRAK-splasshhh.
Cold water slapped his face, spun him, filled his mouth. He clawed at anything, found only pages—thousands of them whipping past like razor-winged birds. One sliced his cheek. Another tried to crawl into his ear, whispering his name in his mother's voice from the night she left.
He bit the page in half.
Ink-blood burst across his tongue.
Something seized his ankle.
Seraphine.
Two of her six wings manifested, golden feathers streaked with black water. She anchored herself to a pillar growing downward like a stalactite, hauling him close.
She pressed his face into the crook of her shoulder so he wouldn't see the abyss yawning beneath them.
"Hold on to me!" she shouted over the roar of falling libraries. "Don't let go!"
He wrapped his arms around her waist—body trembling, breath shuddering, the perfect portrait of fear.
Good.
Let her feel needed.
They fell upward for ten endless seconds. Maybe twenty. Maybe a lifetime.
Then gravity remembered what it was.
The world slammed right-side-up.
They hit stone hard enough to bruise bone. Leo rolled with it, letting Seraphine take the worst of the impact beneath him. She grunted, wings flickering out in a burst of gold. When the ringing in his ears faded, he realized he was sprawled on top of her in a sea of scattered books.
Her blood was warm against his throat. His cheek was bleeding freely.
For one suspended second, their faces hovered inches apart. Her golden eyes searched his—pupils blown wide with adrenaline and something softer.
"Are you hurt?" she whispered.
He let his breath shiver. "I'm okay. Because of you."
Her fingers brushed his cheek, smearing the blood like war paint. She didn't pull away.
Cassian crashed down behind them, landing sword-first, laughing like the fall had been a carnival ride. Mira descended in a precise flip, bow already drawn. The boy whose face refused to focus simply stepped into existence like he'd always been there.
Rook landed last—gentle as a feather hitting a coffin lid.
She was still wearing the silver ring.
The Cloister was gone.
In its place stretched a long stone bridge over a chasm that hadn't existed a breath earlier. No railings. On either side, black water fell upward in utter silence, forming twin waterfalls that vanished into sky.
At the far end stood a single iron door, two hundred meters away. Above it:
THE THIRD TOLL IS TRUTH
SPEAK IT AND CROSS
LIE AND BE UNMADE
Cassian whistled. "Well that's not ominous at all."
Mira eyed the silent waterfalls. "No wind. No sound. Fall, and you fall forever."
Rook tilted her head. "Or until something down there gets hungry."
Seraphine pulled herself up, still half-supporting Leo. Her hand stayed on his arm, protective, steady. "We cross together. One line. No one runs ahead."
Cassian cracked his neck. "And if the bridge asks something stupid?"
"Then we answer honestly," Seraphine replied.
Rook's giggle bounced across the chasm—came back older.
They began to cross.
The bridge was only wide enough for two. Seraphine kept Leo on her left, between her and the drop. Cassian led. Mira guarded the rear. Rook drifted in the middle, spinning the silver ring on her thumb like a coin trick.
Ten meters in, fire carved a question across the air before Cassian.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MORE THAN LIFE?
Cassian barely blinked. "The fight. The moment when everything hurts and I'm still standing."
Green fire. Passage granted.
Mira's question flared next.
WHAT WILL YOU SACRIFICE TO SURVIVE?
"Anyone in my way," she replied without hesitation.
Green fire.
The faceless boy reached his point and simply walked through. The fire didn't appear at all.
Then Rook reached hers.
The flames burned cold—almost white.
WHAT IS HIS NAME?
The letters rearranged themselves, slow and merciless:
L _ _ V _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Rook stopped.
Everyone stopped.
Seraphine's grip on Leo turned bone-deep.
Rook traced the letters gently. "I know it," she murmured. "I've always known it."
The flames waited—hungry.
Leo felt the black flower in his chest bloom so violently something cracked inside him. He tasted rust.
Seraphine stepped half in front of him, wings flaring. "Rook. Don't."
"Truth is heavy," Rook said. "But the bridge wants it."
She leaned in until her lips grazed the burning letters.
Then she whispered—too soft for any ear.
The flames turned black.
Rook walked through untouched.
Fire roared up again before Seraphine and Leo—brighter than the rest combined.
Two questions appeared.
For Seraphine:
WILL YOU DIE FOR HIM?
For Leo:
WILL YOU KILL FOR HER?
Seraphine answered first, without hesitation.
"Yes."
Her voice rang like cathedral bells. "I will die for him."
Gold fire. Passage granted.
Then Leo stepped forward.
He read the words.
WILL YOU KILL FOR HER?
The bridge was utterly silent.
The upward waterfalls whispered like distant applause.
Seraphine turned to him, eyes glowing softly, a smear of his blood across her cheek. "You don't have to answer," she said urgently. "We can find another—"
Leo stepped into the flames.
He met her gaze.
And lied with the same mouth that once told his mother he wasn't hungry so she could eat his share.
"Yes," he whispered. "I would kill for you."
The fire turned the color of fresh blood.
It let him pass.
But as he crossed the threshold, the black flower in his chest finally spoke in a voice without sound:
Liar.
Behind him, Rook's laughter rippled across the chasm—light, delighted, ancient.
The iron door groaned open.
Beyond it lay only darkness
and the wet drag of something enormous breathing.
The third bell began to toll.
And somewhere in that darkness,
something wearing Leo's face
smiled with too many teeth
and started walking the rest of the way to meet them.