Chapter 36 Aspen
Aspen
I wake to the wrongness before I see her.
The air in the cave has shifted. Colder. Sharper. The kind of cold that doesn’t come from weather — the kind that comes from magic pressing against the edges of a space that should be safe.
My eyes snap open.
She’s standing three feet inside the cave entrance.
Platinum hair. Flawless posture. Gold insignia gleaming at her throat even in the dim morning light.
Alenya Virath.
“Well.” Her smile is a knife wrapped in silk. “Isn’t this cozy.”
My frost crackles to life before I’m fully conscious, spreading across my fingertips in sharp crystalline patterns. Beside me, Torric jerks awake, heat flaring instinctively.
But it’s Darian who reacts like he’s been stabbed.
He’s on his feet in a heartbeat — no, faster than a heartbeat — positioning himself between Alenya and Kaia with a snarl that doesn’t sound human. His corruption flickers around his hands, then stutters, then blazes into something else entirely.
Light.
Pure, golden light.
Something has shifted. I’d almost forgotten, in the chaos of last night — the bond purified. The corruption broke. And now Darian is burning with the power he was always supposed to have.
Alenya’s eyes widen for just a fraction of a second.
Then her composure snaps back into place.
“Oh, that’s adorable.” She tilts her head, studying him like a specimen. “You actually think you’re a threat now. How precious.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Torric’s voice is a growl. Fire coils up his arms.
“Language.” Alenya tsks. “And here I thought the Berserker twins were supposed to be the civilized ones. Relatively speaking.”
Finn is awake now too, chaos sparking around him as he scrambles upright. Malrik is already on his feet, shadows writhing, expression carved from stone.
And Kieran—
Kieran hasn’t moved.
He’s still holding Kaia, who’s only just stirring, blinking awake with confusion clouding her violet eyes. His gold gaze is fixed on Alenya with an intensity that could level mountains.
“You should not be here,” he says. Quiet. Absolute. Ancient.
“And yet.” Alenya spreads her hands. “Here I am.”
“How did you find us?” Malrik’s voice is controlled, but I can hear the edge underneath. “We weren’t followed.”
Alenya’s smile sharpens. She glances toward the back of the cave — toward the unconscious form of Callum, still strapped to the makeshift sled Torric’s been dragging up the mountain.
“Kieran’s love for his people has always been his weakness.” Her voice drips with false sympathy. “So loyal. So devoted. So predictable.” She looks back at Kieran, something cruel in her eyes. “His little tracking spell led us right to you. Every step of the way.”
Kieran goes very, very still.
I feel it through the bond — not from him directly, but from Kaia. The shock. The realization. The horrible understanding that Callum wasn’t just broken.
He was bait.
“You used him,” Kaia whispers. She’s fully awake now, pulling herself upright, shadows bristling around her like hackles rising. “You broke him and then you used him to find us.”
“I didn’t break him.” Alenya examines her nails. “That was Alekir’s work. I simply… repurposed what remained.”
Mouse growls from Kaia’s chest — low and dangerous and ancient.
Bob materializes between Kaia and Alenya at Darian’s feet, edges razor-sharp. Patricia’s notebook flares to life, documenting everything with furious intensity.
“You’re going to regret coming here,” Finn says. His voice is light, but there’s nothing light in his eyes. “There’s six of us and one of you.”
“Seven,” Kaia corrects quietly. “Seven of us.”
Something flickers across Alenya’s expression. Fear? No — anticipation.
“Seven,” she repeats. “Yes. That’s rather the point, isn’t it?”
She lets her gaze drift across us. Taking inventory. Taking aim.
“The Berserker twins.” Her eyes land on Torric, then me. “Fire and ice. How poetic. How tragic — branded by your own father, forced into power you never asked for. Does it still hurt? The runes?”
Torric’s flames flare higher. I put a hand on his arm — not to stop him, just to steady him.
“The Shadow Prince.” She turns to Malrik. “Playing at leadership while your kingdom crumbles. Your father would be so disappointed. Oh wait — he’s dead, isn’t he? Such a shame.”
Malrik’s shadows writhe, but his expression doesn’t change.
“The Chaos Boy.” Finn gets a pitying look. “Still desperate for approval. Still performing. Still hoping that if you’re funny enough, charming enough, enough enough, someone will finally choose you first.” She pauses. “How’s that working out?”
Finn’s jaw tightens. His chaos magic sparks erratically.
“The Dragon.” Alenya’s voice drops, almost reverent. “Centuries of power and wisdom, and still you couldn’t protect the one thing you actually care about. How many times has she almost died under your watch, Kieran? How many more until you admit you’re not enough?”
Kieran doesn’t respond. But I feel Kaia’s fury spike through the bond.
“And you.” Alenya finally turns to Darian.
Her smile goes sharp. Cruel. “The broken one. The traitor. The boy who let himself be used because he was too weak to say no.” She steps closer, ignoring the way his light magic blazes brighter.
“I visited you in that cell, remember? After the arena. Gave you a key and a choice.”
Her voice drops, saccharine sweet.
“And you chose, Darian. Chose fear. Chose to crawl back to us like a good little weapon.” She tilts her head. “How does it feel, knowing she trusted you anyway?”
“Don’t.” Darian’s voice is barely human.
“She should have let you die.”
The light around Darian’s hands explodes outward — but Alenya is faster. Her own magic flares, golden and precise, and the blast deflects harmlessly against the cave wall.
“Temper, temper.” She brushes dust from her sleeve. “You’ll need that fire where you’re going.”
Kaia pushes to her feet. Thank gods we dressed her while she was asleep. Her shadows surge around her, Bob and Mouse flanking her like sentinels, the rest of the squad falling into formation.
“We’re not going anywhere with you.”
“Oh, but you are.” Alenya’s smile is triumphant. “You see, the Gate is waiting. The alignment is nearly complete. And Alekir has been so patient.”
She looks at each of us in turn. Seven bonds. Six bloodlines. One Valkyrie.
“You thought you were hunting Seren and Lira. You thought you were the ones in control.” She laughs — bright and brittle and wrong. “You were never hunting them. You were being led. Every step. Every choice. Every mile up this mountain.”
My frost spreads across the cave floor. Torric’s heat pushes back against it. My ice knows the truth before I do — we aren’t ready for what’s at the top.
“Well.” Alenya claps her hands together. “This has been fun. But we have somewhere to be.”
She snaps her fingers.
The world lurches.
One second we’re in the cave — cold stone, dying fire, the smell of smoke and sweat and too many people in too small a space.
The next—
Wind. Biting, brutal wind.
I gasp, lungs seizing against the sudden cold. Not my cold — mountain cold. The kind that kills.
We’re standing on a plateau. Snow whipping around us. The sky above is wrong — too dark, too churning, shot through with veins of sickly green light.
And in front of us…
A structure. Ancient. Massive. Built from black stone that seems to drink the light.
The Gate.
It’s already glowing.
Figures move around it — robed, hooded, their magic pulsing in rhythm with the structure’s thrum. And at the center, standing before the Gate like he’s been waiting for us all along—
A hooded figure.
Dark robes that seem to drink the light. The hood pulled low, obscuring everything but the faint gleam of pale fingers clasped in front of him. The air warps around him — bends wrong, like reality itself is trying to lean away.
I can’t see his face. Can’t make out anything beneath that hood.
But I feel him.
Ancient. Patient. Wrong.
The snow avoids him. The wind dies where he stands. Even the sickly green light pulsing from the Gate seems to curve around him like it’s afraid to touch.
“Ah.” His voice carries across the plateau like it’s being spoken directly into my skull. Calm. Almost warm. “The Key arrives at last.”
His hood shifts — just slightly — as his attention moves to Kaia.
“Hello girl, our meeting is long overdue.”