Chapter 26
Cyrus
FOUR DAYS UNTIL SOLSTICE, AND my cousin was missing.
Her parents called twenty minutes ago, my father said through the portal connection. His voice carried that particular edge that meant family crisis intersecting with larger strategic problems. Aurora left sometime during the night. They’ve checked her usual haunts. Nothing.
I was already moving toward the door, Ember flaring on my shoulder. She came here.
You’re certain?
She’s been asking about Raven for two weeks. Wanting to help. Wanting to do something besides sit in a safe house while the world ends. I grabbed my coat. Medical center. That’s where she’d go.
My father was quiet for a moment. Find her. Keep her safe.
The portal closed.
I took the corridors at a pace just short of running. Ember’s flames pulsed hot against my neck, his anxious energy mirroring my own.
Aurora had been furious when we’d evacuated her. Furious and scared and desperate to stay, to help, and not to be locked away like some fragile thing that needed protecting.
I’d made her go anyway, using authority she couldn’t argue with. I told myself it was for her own good. I should’ve known she wouldn’t stay put.
The medical center’s doors slid open with a soft hiss. I was hit by the antiseptic smell and regulated magic, healing wards thrumming in the walls. Dr. Phillips looked up from her station, her expression shifting to recognition.
Your cousin arrived an hour ago, she said before I could ask. With Mr. Maddock. They’re in room seven with Ms. Singer.
Of course. Raven.
I found them in the private room at the end of the corridor. Aurora sat beside Raven’s bed, her copper hair loose around her shoulders instead of in its usual neat braid. Lucas stood on the other side, his hand gentle on Raven’s arm.
Raven looked better than the last time I’d seen her—more color in her cheeks, more awareness in her eyes. But the corruption threads still clung to her like cobwebs, faint but stubborn.
Aurora looked up when I entered. Her amber eyes—so like mine, so like my father’s—held defiance and guilt in equal measure.
Don’t, she said before I could speak. Don’t tell me I should’ve stayed where you put me. Don’t tell me it’s not safe. Don’t—
You should’ve called, I interrupted.
Her eyes widened slightly.
Let someone know you were coming. Your parents are terrified.
They’re always terrified. Aurora’s voice roughened.
They’ve been terrified since the conspiracy broke.
Since they realized how close we all came to…
She stopped and then started over. I couldn’t just sit there anymore, Cyrus.
Not while Raven was here. Not while Lucas was…
Her hand found his across Raven’s bed. Not while I could actually help.
Lucas squeezed her fingers. She’s been good for Raven, he said quietly. Familiar voice. Family.
I looked at Raven. She was watching us with unusual focus, like she was tracking the conversation despite the exhaustion in her features.
Hi, Raven, I said carefully.
Hi, Cyrus. Her voice came out hoarse but more present than it had been. Aurora says… says you’ve all been working yourselves to death. Trying to stop him.
We’re trying.
He’s… Raven’s brow furrowed. There’s something. Something about the timing. About when he…
She stopped. Went rigid.
Raven? Lucas leaned forward, concern sharp in his voice.
Her eyes rolled back, her body convulsing once, twice. Aurora grabbed her hand, holding on while Lucas moved to stabilize her shoulders.
Dr. Phillips! I was already at the door, calling for help.
But Raven was speaking, words tumbling out in fragments. Her voice was wrong, layered with something that wasn’t quite hers.
Synchronization… now… all nodes… activate…
The corruption threads around her flared silver-black, not spreading but reacting.
Force the resonance… separate them… exhaust the portal mage…
Dr. Phillips burst through the door, diagnostic magic already flowing. But she stopped when she heard Raven’s voice.
She’s receiving commands, Phillips said sharply. He’s activating his network. She’s still connected enough to—
Four heirs… studied the resonance… must break them… Raven’s body arched.
Lucas held her down, gentle but firm.
Aurora’s face had gone pale. She understood what I did. This wasn’t Raven remembering. This was happening now.
Premature synchronization… before they’re ready… burn out their resources…
Then Raven screamed.
The sound cut through me, raw and agonized. It wasn’t physical pain but something worse, like her consciousness was being torn in two directions at once.
Aurora was there immediately, both hands gripping Raven’s, her voice steady despite the fear in her eyes. Raven. You’re here. You’re with us. Lucas and Aurora. You’re safe. You’re here.
Aurora? Raven’s eyes focused, tears streaming down her face. Aurora, he’s…he’s doing it. He’s activating them all. Trying to…trying to force you to…
I know, Aurora said. I know. You told us. You did so good.
Raven’s convulsions eased. The corruption threads dimmed back to their baseline wrongness. But she was sobbing now, curling into herself like she’d been broken open.
Lucas gathered her close, murmuring reassurances. Aurora kept holding her hand.
I recorded everything in my mind—every fragment, every word.
The master wasn’t waiting. He was moving now, forcing our hand before we were ready.
And we had minutes, not hours, to respond.
I left them there—Aurora and Lucas providing the comfort I couldn’t—and ran.
KEANE STOOD AT THE COMMON room window overlooking campus, tablet in hand and Wisp barely visible beside him. His deep blue eyes tracked something I couldn’t see—dimensional geometry, probably, portal routes, the architecture he lived in.
Cyrus. He turned and saw my expression. What happened?
The master just activated his network. I crossed to him fast. All of it. Now. Not in four days. Now.
Keane went still, that particular stillness that meant his mind was already racing through implications faster than anyone else could follow.
Raven, I continued. She’s still partially connected to him. When he activated his corrupted witches, she felt it. Vocalized the commands.
Tell me exactly what she said.
I repeated every fragment. Keane’s hands moved across his tablet, pulling up data and comparing patterns.
Red alerts bloomed across his displays like blood spreading through water.
He’s forcing synchronization, Keane said flatly. Triggering premature activation across all corrupted wellsprings simultaneously, globally.
Before we’re ready. I said. The master hadn’t needed to steer the system day to day. But he could still force it forward when it served him.
Yes. Keane pulled up the dimensional maps. Red alerts everywhere. Vienna. Chicago. Tokyo. Cairo. Sydney. S?o Paulo. Mumbai. Dozens more.
All activating at once.
Every corrupted wellspring on the planet was moving toward synchronization with mechanical precision.
He studied heir resonance, I said. The tactical part of my brain was already working through it—enemy adaptation, strategic countermove. Elio’s parents. Their research. He knows our combined magic is the only real threat to his system.
So he’s adapted. Keane’s voice held something that might have been admiration if it weren’t so catastrophic. Separate us. Force me into evacuation duty. Exhaust our resources before the actual solstice alignment.
I said, It’s a trap. He wasn’t waiting for solstice anymore. He was forcing us to spend our strength early.
Yes.
And we’re going to walk into it anyway.
Keane looked at me—no hesitation in those deep blue eyes, just grim certainty.
People are dying, he said simply. If I don’t open evacuation portals, thousands will die in the corruption spread. So, yes. We walk into the trap.
My fire magic pulsed hot under my skin, the kind of heat that wanted to burn something. Wanted a target. Wanted the master in front of me so I could make him pay for putting us in this position.
But rage wasn’t useful right now. Command was.
Call Parker, I said. Emergency council meeting. Now.
Keane was already moving, his portals opening to key locations. Marigold appeared first. She’d been in the library with Elio. Both of them took one look at our faces and didn’t ask questions.
Parker arrived within minutes, still in field gear from whatever operation she’d just left. My father came through a portal seconds later, the other interim council members filing in behind him.
Report, my father ordered.
I told them everything: Aurora’s arrival, Raven’s activation, the master’s tactical strike against us specifically.
Keane pulled up the data. Every corrupted wellspring globally is moving toward synchronization, not in four days but starting now.
Population centers across six continents show cascade corruption patterns.
Vienna, Tokyo, Chicago, Cairo, Sydney, Mexico City—all critical.
Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Nairobi, Vancouver showing stage two acceleration.
The weight of that settled over the room like ash.
Casualties? my father asked.
Unknown, Parker said. Her voice was clipped and professional, the tone she used when the news was bad and she didn’t have time to soften it. But significant. Budapest is already reporting corruption spreading into residential districts. Chicago’s showing the same pattern. If we don’t evacuate—
Then we evacuate, Commander Voss interrupted. Pull everyone back. Protect what we can.
And abandon how many cities? Hartwell snapped. How many thousands?
Better thousands than everyone…
We don’t have the resources for full-scale global evacuation, Parker cut through the rising argument. Shroud Guard is already stretched across twenty-three active sites worldwide. We need portal support. Dimensional routes. Keane’s magic.
My father’s eyes found mine, then Keane’s, reading what wasn’t being said and what it would cost.