Chapter 35 What Lurks Within
The hover-car winds through Founders’ Crest, past sculpted hedgerows and ornamental gardens that sprawl for miles.
The Blackwood estate looms closest to the gates.
Of course they’d position themselves near the exit, ever the strategists.
Fountains and ancestral monuments streak by in a blur as Kane takes another sharp turn.
He’s kept us grounded, tires gripping polished stone instead of switching to hover mode.
“Tires are more reliable,” he explains, catching my questioning look.
“Hover’s faster, sure, but one disruption spell and the stabilizers fail.
Rather not drop out of the sky because some enforcer got lucky with a containment field.
” His hands flex on the wheel. “Plus, I like having full control. Magic’s unpredictable.
Rubber and road, that’s something I can trust.”
The vehicle cuts through the turns as if it was built for evasion. I wonder how many times Kane has had to use these alternate routes, smuggling people or secrets out of this place.
My ruby flares without warning, sparks flickering across my fingers where they rest against the dashboard. I frown, trying to rein it in, but my power is different now, less controlled. Like it’s responding to something beyond my understanding.
The lack of control ignites a deeper fury. I never agreed to any of this. The bond. The curse. This brand carved into me as prophecy. My only choices are to run, or stay and let Kian dissect me. Knowing my luck, Luna would be the one wielding the scalpel.
Does she know? Have they filled her in on everything? Or is she another brainwashed minion, so desperate for Alexander’s approval she’d sacrifice her own sister? Maybe she simply doesn’t care anymore.
“Easy with the magic there,” Kane warns, eyes on the road as the dash flashes red. “You’ll fry the navigation.”
“I’m trying,” I grit out, hands clenched in my lap. “But I’m not operating at standard right now.”
“Hey, last time you were in this car, you were practically dead. I’ll take angry and sparking over that any day.” Kane’s eyes meet mine, his expression softening for a moment. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks, but I wouldn’t say that. I died, and now some mystical being is using me as a vessel or mirror or—gods, when did my life become such a mess?” I laugh bitterly. “I miss when my biggest struggle was deciding how to push Dom’s buttons and which bed we’d sleep in.”
Kane’s answering chuckle dies as we approach the gates. “Here we go. Once we cross—”
The world locks.
The ancient wards strike with brute force, stalling the car mid-motion, crimson energy constricting around it in tightening loops. One by one the systems fail—navigation, stabilizers, cooling array—until the engine chokes and lights smear red across the dash.
Kane curses, slamming the accelerator. “Come on, come on,” he growls, the engine screaming in protest. Smoke curls from under the hood as magical pressure threatens to tear the vehicle apart.
Something moves inside me.
One moment I’m gripping my seat, heart pounding, and the next I’m not quite myself anymore. Something ancient and furious rises through my blood, filling every cell with power. My fingers tingle before going numb, chest constricting as if my body knows what’s coming before I do.
I reach for control and find nothing.
My hand rises toward the windshield, every motion a violation, the presence writhing beneath my skin, foreign and insistent, exploring me as if my body were borrowed flesh.
Sound rips from my throat in syllables I don’t recognize, each word tearing something deeper inside, my body moving as though it follows instructions etched into bone.
I can’t stop it; my mouth speaks what my mind rejects.
The ruby splinters against my chest, hairline cracks spreading fast, the raw power bypassing it entirely. The wards ahead pulse once and part—not in defeat, but in recognition.
They know what’s inside me.
Our car shoots forward with such force that Kane slams back against his seat. I collapse against mine, head splitting with pain as control returns. The foreign presence recedes, leaving behind echoes of ancient fury and a flicker of satisfaction.
“Holy shit,” Kane breathes, knuckles white on the wheel as we speed away. “How the hell did you do that?”
“I-I don’t know.” My voice shakes as I touch my splintered ruby. “I think he took over. Used me like a channel or a weapon or . . . ” I press my fingers to my temples, trying to ease the throbbing. “I don’t even know what language that was.”
Kane opens his mouth, but a blare of sirens cuts him off. Lights flare in the rearview mirrors, flashing blue against the windshield.
“Darkmoor’s finest,” he sneers, taking another impossible turn that sends us skidding past a flower vendor’s cart in Crown Heights.
Petals explode in our wake, blood roses scattering like omens.
“But they’re not who we need to worry about.
Kian will send his own people—better trained, better armed, and far less concerned with keeping me breathing. You, though, he still needs alive.”
“How many?” I twist in my seat, counting the vehicles gaining behind.
“Three pursuit units. More closing in.” Kane’s eyes flick to the mirrors again.
“They’re herding us toward containment zones.
The real extraction team won’t be in vehicles.
They’ll be in the shadows, locking off exits before we reach them.
” His laugh holds no humor. “Kian doesn’t like losing his toys. ”
We plunge into the Aureum Quarter. Market stalls and pedestrian transports scatter, shouts trailing behind us. Kane pulls into a service alley, walls scraping metal. We emerge in the Everreach district seconds later.
“Margaux said you’d have the glamour potions,” Kane says, taking another sharp turn that sends me scrambling for balance. “In your bag. We need them. Now.”
I dig through the pack, fingers numb from adrenaline. Glass vials clink together, light catching on the iridescent liquid inside; shifting colors trapped in crystal.
Kane inputs commands on the dash and the wheel locks, countdown flashing: 2:00.
“When we reach the Gravemarch Bridge,” he says, voice thrumming with barely contained excitement, “we jump.”
“The car will be moving at full speed!” The potion slips in my grip as another enforcer vehicle locks onto us. Its front is bristling with weapons, the pulse cannon beginning to charge.
“That’s the beauty of it.” Kane swerves, narrowly avoiding a blast that leaves the pavement smoking. “They’ll chase our empty ride while we take a refreshing dip.”
“This isn’t funny, Kane! We’ll die!”
“Come on, princess, where’s your sense of adventure?” He veers onto a narrower lane, diving under one of the old aqueducts. The pursuing vehicles slow, rerouting. “Besides, Margaux would resurrect me just to kill me again if I let anything happen to you. Ninety seconds. Are those vials ready?”
I stare at them in my shaking hands, then at the river glimpsed through gaps in the buildings. The water glints beneath the bridge, deceptively peaceful. “There has to be another way.”
“Sure. We could surrender. Let Kian dissect you while Dom watches. Personally?” Kane’s eyes meet mine, suddenly serious. “I prefer the jump.”
The Gravemarch Bridge looms ahead, steel arches blotting the skyline. I uncork the first vial and pass it to Kane, nearly spilling mine as the car jolts over a cracked slab of road, the liquid burning down my throat. For a heartbeat nothing happens—then my body fractures.
Skin crawls as joints grind and rearrange, vision smearing while bones realign. My face reshapes, hair darkens, shoulders compress. The magic carves me into anonymity, limbs thickening and silhouette eroding until I could be any nameless worker from the Lower Rings.
Kane downs his potion in one gulp, grimacing as the glamour takes hold.
His massive frame collapses inward, deadly grace melting into middle-aged slouch.
The dangerous glint in his eyes dims behind newly sagging features.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was another burned-out desk jockey, trudging home after a twelve-hour shift.
“Thirty seconds!” The enforcer vehicles are gaining, their sirens drowning out the constant industrial drone of the Rift District ahead.
There’s no time to weigh this. No room for hesitation. I grip the door handle and fix my eyes on the water below.
“I can barely swim!” My voice cracks as I stare at the drop ahead. The river churns, dark and unnatural, cutting through concrete and steel.
“Perfect time to learn.” Kane’s grin doesn’t match his new face. His hands dance across the control panel, programming our empty vehicle’s death run. “When those doors open, you’ve got three seconds to jump. Hesitate and—”
“We die?”
“Oh, we probably die either way. But this version has better odds.” He slams the emergency release, and metal screeches as the doors tear open, wind howling through the cabin. The bridge races beneath us. “Now!”
I hesitate for a heartbeat, but something inside me surges. Not taking control, but showing me exactly how to move. My body responds to muscle memory that isn’t mine, twisting as I launch into empty air. For one endless moment, I’m suspended between sky and river, time frozen.
Then, the impact hits.
Water rushes up my nose, shockingly cold and tasting of metal, and my clothes drag me down as I thrash toward what I hope is the surface. The pools I swam in as a kid never prepared me for this—current yanking me sideways, lungs screaming, vision blurring at the edges.
When spots start dancing across my eyes, strong hands grab my jacket. Kane hauls me up, and I break the surface gasping, chest shredding with every breath.
“Kick,” he orders, dragging me toward the bank while sirens scream overhead. “Unless you want to see what’s at the bottom of this toxic soup.”