Chapter 49
Phoenix
We found the door.
I stepped closer, and the hairs on my arms rose. Something old lay behind that door. Something foul. My magic twitched—unsettled.
It was magically sealed. Thick steel, no visible lock—just a humming thread of power etched through its frame.
Toma stepped forward, pressing his palms to the cold metal. His brow furrowed, lips moving in concentration.
“What’s he doing?” I asked.
“It’s his gift,” Lia murmured. “He can negate certain wards and barriers. We’re hoping this one’s simple enough.”
“Why couldn’t he break through the sanctum wall then?” Caelen grumbled beside me, restless.
“Those were royal wards—layers deep, coded. This is… older. Simpler. Maybe sloppier,” Lia replied.
A soft click echoed from the door.
It released with a hiss.
“Nice work,” I said, already pulling it open.
Behind us, footsteps. I turned—and saw Leo and Slade exchanging a look that tightened something in my chest.
“What about the others?” Caelen asked.
“We’ll catch up!” Leo called.
“We’ll hold them here as long as we can,” Slade added.
I took a step toward them, instinct screaming. “But—”
Slade met my eyes, steady and calm. “We’ll be okay. I promise.”
He glanced at the ruins around us, then back at me. “I’m not leaving without my girl. You know that. But this? This is something we can do. Let us do it.”
I hesitated.
“Go,” Slade said. “Get them out. Save who you can.”
I held his gaze one more second—then turned.
And ran.
Down the stairs.
The air thickened with every step—acrid and cloying, a rotten-sweet stench that clung to my throat like smoke.
Decomposing meat. Old blood. Magic turned foul.
I covered my mouth with my sleeve as the corridor twisted lower—and opened into a vast, echoing chamber.
Cages.
Hundreds of them. Maybe more.
They lined the walls, stacked in impossible tiers, stretched down branching corridors that shouldn't have fit inside this place. Magic had warped the space, made room for more suffering.
Faces stared back. Hollow-eyed. Grime-smudged.
Some looked familiar—shadows of people I’d seen in the Varrowmere markets. The vanished. The stolen.
They were here.
All of them.
I clenched my fists. The fire surged higher in my throat. Just one wrong move… and I’d reduce this place to ash.
Lia stumbled to a stop beside me, her hands trembling. Tears streamed silently down her face as she rushed forward, trying one lock, then another, frantically searching for a way to open them.
Behind us, the tower buckled. Another shudder ran through the stone, deep and ominous.
Time was running out.
Rigg moved fast, pressing his hand to each cage, melting the steel with practiced precision. One by one, the doors fell open.
Some of the prisoners couldn’t walk. Others—thin, trembling, barely more than bone—staggered forward and tried to carry those who couldn’t.
A stuffed doll lay just outside one cage, its fabric soaked red. A child’s hand reached through the bars toward it—still, unmoving.
Like so many others.
“We have a way out,” I called, raising my voice above the growing tremor in the stone. “But we need you to move. Help each other. We’ll get you out of here.”
A man stepped forward. Grizzled. Hollow-eyed. Older than he looked.
“Vael took my daughter,” he rasped. “Just yesterday. Said he was ‘blessing’ her—but we know… we know what that means.”
My stomach clenched.
“If she’s here, we’ll find her,” I said, trying—failing—not to let the emotion crack my voice.
Behind me, Caelen stood frozen. Wide-eyed. Pale. His hands trembled where they clutched his blade.
“How can anyone treat a human being like this?” he whispered.
I glanced at Caelen—he looked like he was about to be sick.
“Focus,” I murmured, biting back my fury. “We can fall apart later.”
I pressed my hand to the steel—melted it instantly.
My anger was molten. Boiling. Burning me from the inside out.
We worked fast. One after another, the cages fell open.
Rigg moved to the back wall, pressing his palm to the stone. A passage cracked open behind it.
And then—
The door behind us slammed open.
Footsteps. Fast. Heavy. Too many.
I looked up. Not soldiers. Monks. Shifters.
Shit.
“Run! Run! Now!” Caelen shouted, blade already drawn.
The prisoners surged. A stampede of desperation.
Lia sprinted to the front beside Rigg.
“This way!” she cried. “Come on—move!”
I sprinted toward the stairs, my sword slicing a blazing arc of fire through the smoke.
Caelen fell in beside me, jaw clenched, blade steady. Lacey had her hands full of amulets, ready to blast the soldiers to hell.
Toma was already moving—fluid, fast, a flicker of motion too quick to follow.
We were enough.
We had to be.
And then they hit us—
A wave of steel, claws, snarling fury.
Toma darted like a fox through their ranks, blades flashing.
Caelen took on two—no, three at once—his movements efficient and brutal.
I unleashed fire, driving them back with blasts of heat and flame.
I held it back—barely. I couldn’t risk torching the tower with Elle and Maddie still inside.
But gods, I was ready to burn the world.
“Come on, you bastards!” I roared. “Come and get me!”