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His calm aura was steady, unperturbed even while being bound to a tree. If he made it out alive, Evan made a mental note to ask Delos of his origin. About who he really was.

“How didyouend up here?” Delos asked.

Evan slumped against the tree trunk, blowing out a long breath. He’d ended up here because he misplaced his attention on the wrong topic and underestimated a threat that was lingering right in front of his nose.

He should have dealt with Aaron’s Binding Spell and released him before trying to plan how to stop the sacrifice and save the people. And now he was dumped God knew where, with no one but a silver-haired airhead at his disposal who didn’t understand the severity of their situation.

Howhadhe ended up here?

“My bad luck, I guess,” Evan replied.

Delos quirked a brow, then dropped his head with a smile. “Did you know that Luck and Fate are twins? Born of the same mother, Life.”

There he went again, straying towards strange topics of discussion while they were tied up in a forest by a mad cult. For someone as uptight as Evan, it was difficult to imagine from where such blind lightheartedness rose in people at such terrible timing.

Even though he was in no mood for idle talk, he engaged Delos because, well, there was nothing else to do. “I didn’t know that.”

Taking that as a sign of confirmation, Delos continued.

“While born of the same mother, the two sisters are as far apart from each other as they could be,” Delos wiggled his mud-splattered white boots as he mused. “While Fate weaves a life into a straight thread that eventually reaches one fixed outcome, Luck will diverge threads into forks, forcing one to make a choice. And every choice would lead to a different outcome.”

Evan wasn’t surprised. He knew Luck was a bitch.

“It’s said that both the sisters have never agreed on anything since the beginning of time. And probably never would,” Delos sent a grin Evan’s way.

The way he spoke of the sisters seemed like it wasn’t a legend from a storybook, but something real he’d personally experienced. That made Evan a little uncomfortable for some reason. “I see.”

Looking around the forest area, Evan squinted in the dark, trying to recognize the place where they were held captive.

It wasn’t a part of the Dark Woods for sure. The storm clouds still hovered in the sky, so it was definitely not inside an array like the Enclave Passage, where the sky was clear.

“Whatisthis place?” he mumbled.

The gongs rang out again, and Evan’s head whipped in the direction. The torches perched on the trees paved a clear way through the forest, disappearing somewhere around the curve of thick trees. Faint voices echoed nearby, muffled under the booming of the gongs.

Evan strained his ears and picked up a few broken words.

Spell chanting.

He turned to Delos reflexively as if he were the bearer of all knowledge. “Where are we right now?”

Delos was bobbing his head to some silent rhythm and spoke without missing a beat. “A little further inside the boundary of the Old Temple.”

“We are?” Evan looked around again. “Where is the Old Temple?”

“Gone. It was burnt down.”

Evan was taken aback. “Burnt down? When? I saw it just a few days back,” he paused. “Who did it?”

Delos’s lashes lowered. “Your friend.”

A sharp exhale left Evan.

Of course Aaron burnt down the Old Temple. No, not Aaron. That thing controlling him,thatwas responsible for it.

Evan dropped his head back against the tree. “Why…?”

“It’s not his fault,” Delos smiled sympathetically. “I believe there was something in the temple that Xen wanted, but Aaron had already gotten to it. And later, the temple went up in flames.”