Chapter 40
Leo
Maddie and I were led through the narrow alleys of Duskfall’s slum district, where the buildings leaned like drunks, their sagging roofs patched with cloth and rusted metal.
Barefoot street kids darted past us, chasing each other through puddles, their laughter sharp against the dull murmur of the city.
The air was thick with smoke—woodfires, mostly.
A group of women sat on worn steps, watching us with guarded eyes as they shelled nuts into a dented tin. Somewhere nearby, someone was playing a tin whistle—off-key, but oddly beautiful.
Maddie clutched my arm tighter as we stepped around a broken cart half-sunk into the mud. I didn’t blame her. This place felt like it was barely holding itself together.
She leaned on me, legs like jelly. That last magic burst had wiped her clean out—but her eyes were open. That was something, at least.
Once we stepped inside a hut we were gestured towards the table and a couple of bowls of food were placed before us.
For a moment I just stared at it.
“It’s safe. I wouldn’t waste my poisons.” The woman said, almost jokingly.
“Oh, great. That’s reassuring.” I muttered, eyeing the bowl. Still… it smelled too damn good not to try.
I picked up a spoon carefully and tasted it.
It was delicious.
“Good huh,” the woman said.
Maddie took a spoonful of broth and turned to her. “Who are you?” She asked
“You can call me Lia,” the woman said.
I squinted at her. “Lia. Right. So, Lia—why the hell are you helping us?”
She smiled like it was a game. “Not every day a Shade lion shifter and a half-dead earth mage show up before lunch.”
Maddie and I exchanged a look. My gut tightened.
“So you know us,” I said. “How?”
“Eat,” Lia said, gesturing to the bowls again. “You’re gonna need it. There’s a storm coming.”
I stared at her a moment. “What do you know about it?”
“I know enough. I’ve been waiting for this day. For a long time.” She said.
“I’m sorry, Lia, you still need to explain yourself. How did you know we were coming? Because you did, didn’t you. You were waiting for us.” Maddie said.
Lia sighed—deep and tired.
Then, slowly, she reached up and pushed back her hood.
The firelight caught her face.
Scarred.
Not just burned or bruised. Twisting, zigzagging marks ran from her jaw to her scalp, and down her throat. Ritual scars. Old ones. Deep.
They covered her like a map of something ancient and broken.
I didn’t breathe.
“You were struck by lightning,” I breathed. I was in disbelief.
“More than once,” she said, like it was nothing.
“Vael did that?” My voice felt like it came from somewhere far away.
She nodded, slow. “Vael and I… we go back a long time.”
Before I could ask more, a knock came at the door.
“Lia?” a deep voice rumbled.
I turned, hand drifting toward my blade out of instinct.
A man stood in the doorway—a bear shifter, by the look of him. Massive frame, thick beard streaked with silver, his weathered face lined but alert. His eyes—
Aqua. Bright.
And they softened when they landed on Lia.
Like she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Lia didn’t speak, but something in her shoulders eased.
“Ray,” Lia said softly, smiling.
He stepped into the hut, his presence big and quiet. Without a word, he moved to stand beside her—protective, solid, like he belonged there.
“This them, then?” he asked, his gaze flicking over us. “The ones from your dream?”
Maddie blinked. “You dreamed about us?”
She sounded more confused than alarmed—but barely.
Lia nodded. “I have a gift. It only started a few years ago… visions, mostly. But yes—I knew you were coming. I knew you were important.”
My stomach tightened.
“Important how?” I asked.
Lia stood and drifted to the window. Her fingers touched the wooden frame like she was remembering something far older than the room itself.
“This world…” she said quietly, “It’s fractured. It always has been. Each king rules with iron. Each kingdom builds its walls higher. There’s no unity. Only survival.”
“There never will be,” Maddie replied. “No one out there can bring everyone together.”
Lia turned slightly, her eyes far away. “That’s where you’re wrong. I believed that once, too. I believed the world was cold. Cruel. I tried to bring back the light—and I was punished for it.”
Her voice didn’t tremble. But Ray crossed to her anyway, placing his hands gently on her shoulders.
“Lia—” he warned.
“It’s all right,” she said, almost too softly. “They need to hear this.”
She looked back at us, and her eyes caught the firelight just enough to flicker gold.
“I was dying,” she said. “I was left on the edge of the wilds, my body shattered, with no magic left. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream. The pain was… ancient.”
A pause.
“Then I saw it.”
Her voice dropped to a hush.
“A comet. Cutting across the sky like a blade of fire. A gift from the gods. Or a curse. It fell—and the moment it touched the horizon, I saw everything.”
Her breath hitched—but she smiled. Not kindly.
“I saw what could be. I saw a world reshaped. I saw you.”
She turned back to the window.
“And it starts here. It starts now. With you two.”
Maddie’s brow furrowed. “And you think we’re the ones meant to change it?” Maddie swallowed hard. “What do we need to do?”
Lia didn’t answer right away. She just smiled like someone holding a secret too heavy to name.
“You follow your heart,” she said at last. “That’s all I’m allowed to say.”
Ray turned to us, his voice low. “There are a few of us who aren’t happy with the way things are. Families are being torn apart—turned into currency. Into weapons. Into slaves for kings.”
He hesitated. Just a second.
Then— “My daughter…”
His throat worked as he swallowed.
“She was taken. Sold to King Ashton’s court. Given to him as a gift for his birthday last year.”
He didn’t need to say more.
Ray’s face twisted—like he might be sick, or scream, or shatter. But he held it in. Just barely.
Maddie covered her mouth. “Oh my gods…”
I looked down.
The scar over the brand I used to wear as a Shade felt like it was burning through my shirt.
I’d seen horrors at Ashton’s court—more than I ever want to admit. And I’d looked away from most of them. I told myself it was survival. I told myself I couldn’t change it. That looking too closely would only get me killed.
But right now, nothing in my past felt more shameful than this.
“How many more people do they have to take?” I growled, my fists clenched at my sides.
I saw the markets—crowded and cruel—where people were ripped from their homes like livestock.
I saw the raids. The arrests.
The ones dragged off just for speaking out. For existing wrong under Ashton’s rule. For failing to show enough devotion.
I saw Frostwatch again.
The burning homes. The children crying in the smoke.
Tom’s face—gods, Tom’s face—right before he was forced to fight me in Varrowmere.
All because Ashton had to own the will of the Shades.
All because Vael had to own the woman I love.
Because they could.
This had to end.
They had to die.
“Vael took someone,” I said. “Someone important.”
Lia didn’t flinch. “Elira.”
My chest tightened. “You know her?”
She sighed, but didn’t answer the question directly.
“She’s in the tower,” she said instead. “He’s keeping her there. Our spies say she’s unharmed… for now. We’ve been trying to get help to her, but with Vasquez in the city, we know Ashton won’t be far behind.”
My stomach turned.
Two petty kings, circling the same prize.
So determined to own her—to own everything—that they’d burn the world before they shared it.
It was sickening.
“Can you get us inside?” Maddie asked, her voice steady. “We need to help her.”
Lia studied her for a long moment—really studied her, like she was weighing not just the request, but the soul behind it.
Then she nodded. Just once.
“We’re working on a breach plan,” she said. “The tower is heavily warded. But we have people inside—servants, messengers.”
Ray crossed his arms, stepping closer. “But if we do this… there’s no going back. Once you’re in, you’re in.”
“We know,” I said.
I could feel Maddie beside me, ready. Unshaking.
“We are going to make them bleed.” She growled.
Whatever came next—we were already past the point of turning around.