Chapter 22
Kaia
Nobody moves.
For a long, terrible second, nobody even breathes.
Callum stands in the middle of the road like he belongs there, like he’s been waiting for us since we left the village. Maybe longer. His grin stretches too wide, his eyes too hollow, his body twitching with an energy that doesn’t look human anymore.
“Hello, Kieran,” he says, savoring the words. “Miss me?”
Kieran goes rigid beside me. I can feel it through the bond — something cracking, splintering, threatening to shatter completely.
Bob’s edges go razor-sharp at my shoulder.
“Say the word.” Torric’s voice is low, dangerous. “He doesn’t get near her again.”
But Callum isn’t looking at me. He’s looking at Kieran like he’s the only person in the world.
“Did you miss me?” Callum tilts his head, that wrong grin stretching wider. “Did you look for me? Did you even care?”
“Callum.” Kieran’s voice breaks on the name.
Callum giggles — high, sharp, wrong.
“The Valkyrie opens the Gate,” he whispers, almost to himself. “The God devours… devours…” He trails off, blinking rapidly, then refocuses on Kieran with unsettling intensity. “You LEFT me there.”
The group shifts uneasily.
I catch Torric taking a step forward — not attacking, just positioning himself between me and Callum. His jaw is tight, heat radiating off him in waves he’s barely controlling.
Finn hasn’t moved. His face is blank, closed off, but I can see his hands shaking at his sides.
Malrik is quiet. Watching. Trying to assess damage none of us can see.
And Darian—
Darian takes a step back.
I notice because everyone else stepped forward — toward me.
His corruption flickers around his fingers, dark and uneasy, and his eyes are locked on Callum with an intensity that makes my stomach twist.
“There’s something else inside him,” Darian says. His voice is barely above a whisper. “Something wrong.”
Callum’s head snaps toward Darian.
He stops twitching. Stops grinning. Goes completely, horribly still.
For one long moment, he just stares. His hollow eyes move from Darian to me. Back to Darian. Back to me.
Then he starts laughing.
High and sharp and utterly unhinged, the sound bouncing off the twisted trees around us. Linda drifts toward Kieran, hovering close like she’s trying to offer comfort he can’t accept.
“Oh,” Callum gasps between laughs, tears streaming down his face. “Oh, that’s precious. You found him. You actually found him.” He doubles over, wheezing. “The last one. The broken one. Does he know what he is yet? Does she?”
Darian flinches like he’s been struck.
“Shadows bite, shadows bite,” Callum sing-songs, wiping his eyes. “The broken one shines brightest before he burns…”
“Callum.” Kieran takes a step forward — just one — like he can’t help himself.
I grab his wrist.
He freezes. Turns to look at me with eyes that are wet, furious, terrified.
I don’t let go.
Callum straightens slowly, his laughter dying into something worse — a soft, broken humming.
“Kieran, Kieran, Kieran,” he murmurs. “Always so loyal. Always so devoted.” His voice cracks. Breaks. Reforms into something sharper. “You left me there. You LEFT me. And he found me instead.” His grin stretches wrong. “The one behind the Gate. The hunger. He saved me.”
Finnick is doing jagged somersaults near my shoulder, mirroring the chaos radiating off Callum.
“Who?” Kieran’s voice is barely recognizable. “Callum, who found you?”
Callum’s grin returns, wrong and stretched.
“The God is coming,” he whispers. “The Gate is waking. And you — all of you — you have no idea what’s waiting.” He laughs again, softer this time. “No idea what he’s going to do when it opens.”
“Who?” I demand. “Alekir?”
Callum’s eyes slide to me, and something shifts in his expression. Something almost like recognition.
“Your unnatural shadows,” he breathes. “Your hungry little monsters. Do you think you can stop any of this?”
His head twitches. His eyes unfocus.
“The Valkyrie feeds the Gate… the Gate feeds the God… the God devours the broken one…” He trails off, muttering to himself, then suddenly refocuses with frightening clarity. “He sees everything. He knows everything. He’s been inside my head for so long I can’t remember what it felt like before.”
His voice drops to a whisper.
“It’s hungry, little Valkyrie. And you’re exactly what it wants.”
“Enough.” Torric’s voice cuts through the tension like a blade. “I’m done listening to this.”
He steps forward, flames flickering at his fingertips, and I see it — the moment he’s about to cross the line.
“NO.” Kieran’s voice cracks like a whip. He tears forward, putting himself between Callum and Torric. “You don’t touch him.”
Torric stops. His flames don’t die, but they don’t advance either.
“Kieran—” Aspen’s voice is sharp with worry. “He’s compromised. We don’t know what he’ll do.”
“I don’t care.”
“He betrayed you,” Finn says quietly, looking at Kieran. “And her. And all of us.”
“I know what he did.” Kieran’s hands are shaking. “I know. But he’s not — he’s not himself. Can’t you see that?”
The group falls silent.
Callum giggles softly in the background, swaying on his feet. “The broken ones always see clearest… the broken ones always burn first…”
Patricia’s notebook has gone dark, like even she can’t bear to record this.
Darian speaks quietly. “Whatever Alekir did to him… it’s still there. I can feel it. The feeling is…” He swallows. “Familiar. Not him — just the way it moves.”
Callum’s head snaps toward Darian again. “The broken one,” he whispers. “The broken one shines brightest before he burns.”
Kieran flinches at that. But he doesn’t move.
Slowly — so slowly — he turns back to Callum and kneels.
“Callum.” His voice breaks completely. “What did they do to you?”
Callum stops swaying. His hollow eyes focus on Kieran’s face with something that might have been recognition, once.
“Everything,” he whispers. “They did everything.”
His head tips back, eyes rolling toward the sky.
“And it was beautiful.”
I move without thinking.
I cross to Kieran and put my hand on his back. I can feel him trembling under my palm — small, constant tremors he’s trying desperately to hide.
He leans into my touch. Barely. But real.
The group is watching us. Waiting.
Torric’s flames have died, but his expression is murderous. Aspen looks torn between wanting to comfort and wanting to strategize. Finn has turned away entirely, jaw tight, hands still shaking.
Malrik catches my eye. Nods once. Your call.
But it’s not my call.
I stand and face them.
“We’re not killing him.”
“Kaia—” Torric starts.
“We’re not killing him,” I repeat, and my voice is steady even though my heart is pounding. “But this isn’t my decision to make.”
I turn and look at Kieran.
He’s still kneeling, one hand hovering near Callum’s shoulder like he’s afraid to touch him. Like touching him might confirm that this broken, hollow thing is really all that’s left of his friend.
“He’s yours,” I say softly. “Whatever you decide, we follow.”
The silence stretches.
Finn shifts uncomfortably. Torric’s jaw works like he’s biting back words. Aspen’s frost crackles once, then goes still.
But nobody argues.
Because they understand. They were all there when Darian showed up. When everyone wanted to kill him, and I said no. When I claimed him as mine.
Callum is Kieran’s.
And none of us have the right to take that choice away from him.
Bob’s edges soften. Mouse nudges Kieran’s knee, like even they understand.
Kieran’s breath shudders.
He looks at Callum — really looks at him. At the hollowed cheeks, the twitching hands, the madness swimming in his eyes. At the ruin of the man he used to know.
“The Gate opens,” Callum murmurs, half-conscious now. “The God rises… the Valkyrie bleeds… the broken one burns…”
Kieran closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, something has settled. Not healed — nothing could heal this — but decided.
“We take him with us,” Kieran says.
His voice is barely a whisper, but it carries.
Torric swears under his breath. Aspen’s expression tightens with frustration. Finn doesn’t turn around.
But Malrik just nods.
“Then we need to move,” Malrik says. “Whatever broke him, whatever’s waiting at the Keep — we can’t stay here.”
Callum collapses.
One second he’s murmuring prophecies to no one, the next his eyes roll back and he crumples like a puppet with its strings cut.
Malrik catches him before he hits the ground, lowering him carefully to the dirt.
“Exhaustion,” he says, checking Callum’s pulse. “Or something else. Either way, he’s out.”
He scans Callum’s arms, his neck. “No fresh wounds. Just old scars. Whatever broke him — it wasn’t physical.”
Bob takes point, posture rigid. Mouse pads in a slow circle around us now, no longer frozen — alert, tracking every sound. The small shadows Finn kept counting earlier edge closer, restless with whatever’s wrong here.
Kieran hasn’t moved.
He’s still kneeling where Callum collapsed, staring at the space where his friend used to be. His hands are pressed flat against his thighs like he’s afraid of what they’ll do if he lets them move.
I crouch beside him.
“Hey.”
He doesn’t look at me.
“Kieran. Hey.”
His eyes finally meet mine. They’re red-rimmed. Devastated. Older than I’ve ever seen them.
“Thank you,” he whispers.
“Don’t thank me yet.” I put my hand on his arm, feeling the tremor still running through him. “We’re not out of this.”
“I know.” His voice cracks. “But you gave me a choice. You didn’t take it from me.”
“Of course,” I say softly. “Because choice matters, Kieran.”
Something shifts in his expression. Realizing just what he did taking my choice from me.
He nods.
I squeeze his arm, then stand.
Torric and Malrik lift Callum between them. He’s lighter than he should be — I can see it in how easily they carry him, how his bones jut beneath his clothes.
Whatever Alekir did to him, it hollowed him out. Left nothing but madness and what sounds like twisted prophecy.
The mountain looms ahead. Sorrow’s Keep. Closer now than it’s ever been.
My shadows press close around me. Bob at point. Mouse at my heel. Patricia’s notebook flickering back to life, already documenting. Finnick settling on my shoulder, finally still.
The group falls into formation around me. Different now. Heavier.
Finn still won’t look at me. Darian is keeping his distance from Callum’s unconscious body. Aspen hovers close to my left, frost at his fingertips. Torric’s heat near enough I feel it.
And Kieran walks beside Malrik, his eyes fixed on Callum’s slack face.
“Let’s move,” I say.
We start walking toward the Keep.
Whatever’s waiting for us there, we’re running out of time.
And I can’t shake the feeling that something is watching us.
Something hungry.
Something that already knows we’re coming.
The trees feel too quiet. Like they’re holding their breath.