Chapter 18
DAEMON
Cold pressed in from all sides.
I woke to absolute darkness. My lungs burned, throat raw as though I'd swallowed ash. I couldn't remember closing my eyes. Couldn't remember,
Lyralei. Vaelthorne.
The memory slammed back. Arrows punching through her, light fading from her eyes. Seris falling to her knees, unable to withstand the grief.
I pushed myself upright. Stone scraped my palms, damp and smooth. The darkness was total, suffocating in its completeness.
"Anyone conscious?" My voice came out hoarse.
A groan answered from my left. Kael, probably. Another rustle to my right. Kane shifted, cursing under his breath.
"Where are we?" Zephyr's voice cracked with panic. "I can barely see anything. I can't, "
"Breathe." I kept my tone flat, authoritative. "Everyone stay still until we know what we're dealing with."
Then, I sensed more movement. Bodies shifting, fabric rustling.
Five. All five.
"I need to know who's here," I said. "Sound off."
"Kael." Exhausted, but steady.
"Kane." Bitter edge underneath.
"Zephyr." Still shaking.
Silence.
"Seris?" I turned toward where I thought she might be. "Seris, answer me."
A soft exhale. Barely audible.
"She's here," Kael said quietly. "I can feel her beside me. She's... not responsive."
My jaw clenched. Deal with it later. Survive first.
"Does anyone have supplies? Provisions? Anything?"
Negative responses filtered back. Of course. Lyralei had pulled us through reality itself with seconds to spare. We were lucky to have arrived with our clothes intact.
I forced myself to stand. My legs protested, muscles screaming from exertion I didn't remember making. The stone beneath my feet felt worn smooth, ancient. Water dripped somewhere distant, echoing in a way that suggested vast space.
"Stay together," I said. "Link hands if you have to. We move as a unit."
I extended my arm, found fabric, followed it until my fingers brushed someone's shoulder. Kane flinched but didn't pull away.
"Everyone connected?"
Murmurs of confirmation. I started forward, testing each step. My shadows felt sluggish, barely responding to my call.
Three steps. Five. Ten.
My outstretched hand hit stone. I traced the surface. It was curved and vertical. A wall.
"Found something." I followed it left. Smooth stone gave way to rough edges, then I could feel the air. Open space.
"Tunnel," I announced. "It’s narrow. Single file."
No one argued. I led them into the passage, one hand on the wall, the other extended forward. The darkness pressed closer here, claustrophobic and dense. Behind me, someone's breathing hitched toward hyperventilation.
"Control your breath," I said without looking back. "Panic kills faster than anything else down here."
The breathing steadied. Barely.
We walked. Time became meaningless in the dark. Could have been minutes. Could have been hours. My legs moved mechanically, one foot before the other, while my mind catalogued everything wrong with our situation.
No food. No water. No supplies. No idea where we were or how to leave. Seris silent and withdrawn, most likely numb from grief. The team exhausted, injured, traumatized.
And Vaelthorne,
I couldn't think about Vaelthorne, but the thoughts rushed in anyway. About the Fae who'd welcomed us, fed us, celebrated with us. About the light and music and joy that had filled that clearing just weeks ago.
Gone. All of it gone.
Because my father had found us. Because I'd led him there with my carelessness. I should have been more diligent inspecting the runes that were carved on Seris’s skin. I forced the regret aside to my feet forward.
The wall disappeared beneath my palm. I stopped abruptly, hearing Kane stumble into my back with a muttered curse.
Ahead, we saw a single ray of light.
Not much. A faint grayish suggestion of illumination, so subtle I might have imagined it. But after absolute darkness, even the ghost of light felt like salvation.
"There." I pointed uselessly. "Do you see it?"
"Yes," Kael breathed. "Gods, yes."
We moved faster now, drawn toward that pale glow like moths to flame. The tunnel widened, walls receding into shadow. The light strengthened incrementally, still dim, still gray, but enough to see shapes.
The passage opened into a cavern.
I stopped at the threshold, taking it in. Enormous space stretched before us. The ceiling was lost in darkness overhead. Luminescent moss clung to distant walls, providing just enough light to navigate by. The air tasted of minerals and age, untouched by wind or weather.
Behind me, Seris made a small, broken sound. I turned in time to catch her as her legs gave out.
"Easy." I lowered her to the ground. "You're all right."
She wasn't all right. None of us were.
Zephyr and Kane staggered to the nearest wall and slid down it. Their faces, visible now in the moss-light, looked hollowed. Haunted.
Kael was focused and stoic, but I could tell he was forcing himself to keep it together just like I was.
I helped Seris down carefully. Her eyes saw nothing, focused on some internal landscape I couldn't access. Dirt and blood streaked her face. Her hands hung limp at her sides.
"Seris." I kept my voice gentle.
No response. Not even a flicker of acknowledgment.
I touched her arm carefully. She flinched but didn't pull away, didn't look at me. Moving on instinct, operating on autopilot.
Kane got up and made his way toward us. He gave her a respective distance and sat down, his back facing us.
The silence that settled over us felt heavier than the darkness had.
I inventoried our physical state. Kael favored his left side. Kane's axe hung lower than usual. Zephyr held onto his crossbow with shaky hands. Seris appeared physically intact but emotionally shattered.
And me, I catalogued my own damage with detached precision. Bruised sternum. Wrenched shoulder.
Time was running out faster than I'd calculated.
"We need a plan," Kael said into the silence. His voice carried forced determination. "Figure out where we are, how to get out."
"Later." Kane’s eyes had closed. "Can't think. Can't... just need a moment."
The moment stretched. Lengthened. Became minutes.
No one spoke. What was there to say? That we'd watched Vaelthorne burn? That we abandoned Lyralei to die alone? That hundreds of Fae had been slaughtered while we ran?
The reality of it settled over me in waves. We'd found sanctuary. However, it was brief, beautiful, impossible in the world we live in. We lost it in the space of heartbeats, forced to watch something precious and irreplaceable turn to ash.
My father's work. My legacy.
I looked at Seris. She hadn't moved, hadn't made a sound. Just sat with her forehead pressed to her knees, arms wrapped tight around herself.
I wanted to reach for her. Wanted to offer comfort, reassurance, something. But what comfort existed after watching your last connection to your mother die? What reassurance could I give when I'd brought destruction to her doorstep?
"Seris." I tried anyway. "I know, "
"Don't." The word came out flat. Dead. "You don't know anything."
Fair enough.
"We survived," I said instead. "That matters."
"Does it?" She lifted her head finally, meeting my eyes. Hers were empty. Burned out. "Should it?"
I had no answer for that.
She returned her forehead to her knees. "She saved us. Used everything she had left to pull us through the Veil, and we just... left her there. Left all of them."
"We didn't have a choice."
"There's always a choice." Her voice broke. "I could have stayed. Could have fought. Could have, "
"Died." The word came out harsher than I'd intended. "You would have died, and it would have meant nothing."
"Maybe that's what I deserved."
The defeat in her voice carved something hollow in my chest. I'd seen Seris angry, terrified, desperate. Never this. Never so thoroughly emptied of will.
I lowered myself to sit beside her. Not touching, but close enough that she'd know I was there.
"Lyralei chose," I said quietly. "She chose to save you. To give you a chance to finish what she started. Dying for nothing would dishonor that."
"Would it?" Seris's laugh held no humor. "Or would dying for nothing be appropriate, considering everything I touch turns to ash?"
"That's not,"
"They welcomed me. Gave me a home. Treated me like family." Her hands clenched into fists before they lost their strength and her fingers uncurled. "And because of me, they're dead. All of them dead."
"Because of a tyrant," I corrected. "Because my father is a monster who destroys everything beautiful out of spite and fear."
"Because I exist." She raised her head again, meeting my eyes with terrible clarity. "If I'd never been born, if my mother had never, "
"Stop." I caught her hand before I'd consciously decided to move. "You don't get to erase yourself from existence because evil people do evil things. That's not how this works."
"Isn't it?" She didn't pull away, but her fingers remained limp in my grip.
"Maybe Lyralei was wrong. Maybe I'm not meant to protect anything. Maybe I'm just the final catastrophe waiting to happen. I should have died instead of Lyralei. You can’t tell me Lyralei wouldn’t have had a better chance at defeating the Devourer than I do. "
I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell her she was more than prophecy or power or potential destruction. That I'd seen her dance beneath Veil-light, seen her laugh with my team, seen her choose joy despite every reason not to.
But the words wouldn't come. Because part of me also had doubts.
The silence returned, thicker now. Oppressive.
Across the cavern, Zephyr had curled on his side, either sleeping or pretending to. Kael and Kane sat with their backs to the wall, staring at nothing.
We should rest. Should conserve strength for whatever came next. But rest required peace we didn't possess, safety we couldn't feel.
I released Seris's hand, and she withdrew immediately, curling tighter into herself.
Hours passed. Or maybe minutes. The timeless quality of this place made measurement impossible.
Eventually, exhaustion claimed the others. Kane's breathing evened into sleep. Kael's head drooped forward. Even Zephyr stilled completely.
Seris remained awake. I could tell from the tension in her shoulders, the occasional shudder that ran through her frame.
"You should rest," I said quietly.
"Can't." Barely a whisper. "Every time I close my eyes, I see her falling."
I understood that. Had lived with that particular torture for years, the ghosts that waited behind closed eyelids.
"She knew what she was doing," I offered. "Made her choice with full awareness."
"That doesn't make it hurt less."
No. It didn't.
"I thought..." Seris's voice cracked. "For a few weeks, I thought maybe happiness was possible. That maybe I could have something that wasn't pain or fear or— "
She stopped. Swallowed hard.
"It was an illusion," she finished. "A brief, beautiful lie before reality reasserted itself."
"It wasn't a lie."
"Wasn't it?" She finally looked at me fully. Tears tracked through the dirt on her face, but her expression remained blank. Numb. "Everything good in my life ends the same way. Fire and death and ash. Maybe that's all there is. All there'll ever be."
I wanted to deny it. Wanted to promise her something better waited ahead. But I'd built a life on truth, however brutal, and couldn't bring myself to offer false comfort now.
So I just sat with her in the darkness and said nothing.
The moss-light flickered, and somewhere far above, the world continued without us.