Night pooled over the Capital like spilled ink, thick and slow and strangely silent. Lyra and Kael approached the shattered western wing of the palace, its broken towers clawing at the sky. The ground still smelled faintly of fire and old sorrow, a reminder of the night everything began to unravel.
They weren't alone.
Shadows shifted behind stone pillars. Soldiers patrolled the outer perimeter. But Kael moved like a whisper, and Lyra mirrored him, her steps careful, her pulse sharp with focus.
"Are you sure this is where the ledger is?" Lyra murmured.
Kael nodded. "The Council hid all their darkest dealings here. If we find proof of who ordered the massacre, we can dismantle the entire web."
Lyra wanted to argue, wanted to say that dismantling webs sounded neat and tidy, but this truth—this thing they were hunting—felt monstrous. A beast hiding in a pile of bones.
They entered through a collapsed archway, ducking beneath hanging stone. Inside, the hall was a skeleton. Pillars cracked down the middle. Mosaics shattered. Glass crunched under their boots like frost.
And yet, something pulsed.
Kael stopped suddenly, one hand out.
Lyra felt it too. A tremor. A quiet hum threading the air, soft as breath but wrong, an echo of something ancient.
"It's not just relics here," Kael whispered. "There's… a ward."
The air shimmered. A ripple moved through the room like a heartbeat.
Then a voice, soft and smooth, pierced the dark.
"You return to the birthplace of your betrayal."
Lyra froze.
A figure stepped out from behind a broken column, cloaked in silver and shadow. Their eyes were a pale violet—unnervingly familiar.
Kael's breath hitched. "Eris."
The name dropped like iron.
Lyra's mind scrambled. Eris. Kael's former ally. The one rumored to be dead. The one who vanished the night Kael was framed.
"You should have stayed buried in your guilt," Eris said with a soft, cutting smile. "But you always did prefer to dig up corpses."
"Where is the ledger?" Kael demanded.
Eris tilted their head. "Safe. And far beyond your reach."
Lyra stepped forward, shoulders squared. "Then why are you here? To haunt him? Or to keep the truth from surfacing?"
"Oh, little flame," Eris murmured, eyes glinting. "You think truth is a single thread. But pull the wrong one, and everything you love unravels."
Lyra's heart thudded.
Kael moved in front of her, protective, even though she didn't need shielding. "If you touch her—"
"I wouldn't," Eris said, stepping closer. "But others will. Once the Council knows you're hunting their secrets, they'll hunt you both."
Lyra felt the room tilt. "So you're warning us?"
Eris chuckled. "No. I'm savoring the moment before you understand that every step you take brings you closer to choosing between each other…"
A pause, heavy as thunder.
"…and the kingdom."
The ward pulsed again, bright and violent.
Eris vanished.
The ground beneath them trembled.
Stone cracked.
Kael grabbed Lyra's arm. "Move!"
They sprinted toward the exit as the ruins collapsed, dust spiraling like ghosts rising from their graves. A pillar split in half behind them, smashing into the ground where Lyra had been standing seconds before.
They burst into the night air, choking on dust, hearts hammering in unison.
Lyra leaned against a wall, breathless. "He's alive. And he knows everything."
Kael's gaze tightened. "Eris was never just an ally. He was the Council's blade. If he's resurfaced, it means the Council is starting to panic."
Lyra swallowed. Panic meant recklessness. Recklessness meant danger.
Kael stepped closer, his voice low and steady, grounding her. "We're not turning back."
She nodded. "Then we find the ledger before they do."
The night wind carried a faint scent of smoke, like the world itself held its breath.
The hunt had changed.
But so had they.
And the kingdom wasn't ready for what they were becoming.