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Darien managed to say, “Do you know where the Well is? If we can find it before them—”

“That, I don’t know. But I would be willing to bet Lionel does, and he’s been watching whoever is responsible for the search for the Well.”

“So if we watch Lionel,” Malakai cut in, throwing Valen and Sylvan a loaded look, “we might be able to find out.”

Christa shrugged. “Maybe. But I would tread carefully. One wrong move, and this whole thing could go up in flames.”

Darien’s mind whirled with thoughts of Loren, of Klay… If this had anything to do with that asshole, if she was in trouble and he’d let her walk away from him in the hospital like that…

“Thanks, Christa,” Darien bit out. “I’ll take it from here.”

He walked away, Reapers following.

Christa’s soft voice chased him through the fog. “Be careful, Darien. Whatever you do.”

They were passing under a plaza arch that was shaped like vampire wings, the sharp tips swallowed up by fog, when Malakai spoke. “I’m finding that Well.”

Darien stopped walking. Turned to face Malakai. When Darien spoke, he was careful to keep the emotion off his face. “We need to take this slow. If they find out—”

“I need that Well, Darien.” Malakai’s firm words echoed through the plaza. “Jewely needs that Well.” Shit.

“It can heal the Tricking,” Valen said. “If we had it, we would never have to worry about getting sick.”

Sylvan added, “And think of the power.”

Malakai held up a hand, silencing them. “Nobody’s touching it until Jewels has been healed.”

Darien’s heartbeats were already quick, but they sped up to a sprint at Sylvan’s next words.

“We need the girl,” he said. “I heard the Well can only be used by her—”

“These are nothing but rumors you’re banking on!” Darien barked, voice ripping through the fog. “None of them have been proven true.” He pinned Malakai with a cold stare. “We keep moving forward as planned. We take down Gaven, and we worry about the Well after. You made an agreement with me, Malakai, did you not?"

Malakai stepped closer, jaw flexing, hands forming loose fists at his sides. “The minute Gaven is behind bars, that Well is mine. And I would advise you not to stand in my way, Cassel. Not when it’s something like this, and not when it involves my sister. Got it?”

Darien had to force his next word out—and had to force down the red-hot rage prickling beneath his skin, begging him to rip these three men apart where they stood. “Fine.”

Silver canines glinted with a cold smile—a smile that didn’t reach Malakai’s eyes. “Great. Let’s get out of here, then.”

Too many players. There were too many moving players, and Darien had no idea how to control them all. He was keeping secrets from everyone, and if Malakai found out about Loren…

Game over. And the worst part about it was he didn’t know who would win.

—

Loren led the imperator and his men southwest of the entrance into Spirit Terra. A tug in her chest told her where to walk, but she didn’t listen to it.

So far, her plan was working. That pull she felt deep inside her would no doubt lead the imperator to the Arcanum Well, but she had no plans to hand it to him. While it may be trying to tug her northeast, she was the only person who knew that, the only person who could feel the magnetic pull, the only person aware of the heat emanating from the amulet, the telling light hidden beneath her thick bodysuit.

They had walked farther than she had meant to travel, her attempts to lead the imperator and his men away from the Well taking her deeper into Spirit Terra than she had intended. Every step not only took her away from Angelthene, but also away from Darien. She sensed she was running out of time, the pulse of the clock below her ear speeding up.

Out of the corner of her eye, she peeked at Klay. The numbers glowing on the side of his neck declared the winding down of the last two hours. That was one good thing that came of the Life Clocks: when the imperator and his men had a time limit like this, and no option of bringing more syringes with them into Spirit Terra, they never could stay for long. Soon, she would be heading back to Darien. Soon, she would be putting an end to this.

With a deep breath, she faced ahead. Her feet slowed to dragging at the sight of the structure materializing out of the mist.

A massive tower—a pillar—pierced the sky. It looked just like the two framing the entrance into Spirit Terra, except bigger, larger than the Control Tower. It was made of the same black, glasslike material as the pillars under Angelthene, only this one was shot through with veins of oozing black instead of rainbow. There was no color here. No color at all.

Beyond that pillar was another Veil. An endless black wall that looked like undulating ink. The temperature here was so cold, the ground was covered in frost, the plants glazed with ice that made them look like glass.