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Taly’s back hit the altar. She pulled her pistol forward, holding it between them.

“I see,” he remarked, grinning. “So, that explains that little tickle. Hyaline, yes? Happy to see someone finally found a way to make it useful that didn’t involve dragging me out of bed.”

He slapped the gun out of her hands. The crack of a gunshot filled the temple.

“Perhaps I should explain the game you’ve wandered into, child.” He straightened, casting a longer shadow, the space between them somehow smaller for it. “It seems only fair, considering which side has already claimed you.”

As though his words called it forth, thunder growled from deep underground, echoing through the temple. Taly could feel its vibration through the soles of her boots.

Aneirin smiled in delight. “I don’t think she liked that.” His eyes lifted, searching the stone rafters. “You haven’t told her yet, have you?” he said to no one that Taly could see. “The bitch always did hate being reminded of the rules,” he added with a glance back at her.

Magic lashed through the temple. Light and color flashed like phantoms, golden images flickering in and out among the pews and aisles. They were everywhere, their forms indistinct, filling the temple like some ghostly congregation. Hints of ancient songs and whispers echoed off the walls, bleeding away before she could grasp their meaning.

Aneirin roared back at that force, thatpresenceshe could feel watching them from on high, “Oh, don’t get pissy with me. For the Judge has delivered his ruling, that ye might only take that which isfreely given. And like always, it’s up tometo step in and doyourdue diligence.”

The whispers grew in force and volume, and Taly realized… It was time—raw time that she could feel building like pressure in her ears. After so many days separate from the Weave, she breathed it in like oxygen.

A thousand different days, all layered on top of each other, all colliding. And as the voices rose in a discordant roar, words began to surface, a pattern emerging from the chaos, a single word spoken by different people during different ages…

you

should

have

stayed

slee…pinggg

The last word trailed off into a hiss as the roar died down. The pressure released, so suddenly that Taly sagged against the altar.

“What the hell was that?” she rasped, heart thundering.

Aneirin dusted off his sleeves. “Just a temper tantrum. Don’t worry. Without a vessel, that’s all she can do. Howl, rant, and make creepy sounds. Pay her no mind.”

He fixed his eyes on her, black lines spider-webbing across his cheeks. Kalahad was fading, deteriorating by the second.

“Who are you?” Taly breathed.

He said almost gently, “Someone who can help. If you’ll let me. It brings me no joy to see an innocent racing so blindly to her own execution.” He tilted his head. “Kairó vuun’manii?”

Taly jolted.

“Yes, I thought that might ring a bell. It’s Faerish. And by that, I meantrueFaerish, not that polluted nonsense your scholars peddle. Its meaning is very simple:let me in, my beloved.”

Silence fell, thick and heavy. As if that presence was still there, still hiding in the shadows.

Still listening.

Aneirin went on, “I’m sure you’ve seen her by now: a woman with skin pale as ivory. Who whispers sweet nothings in your ear—and by that, I mean ‘true nothings.’ More incomprehensible murmurings in a language no one speaks anymore.”

The rumblings grew sharper.

“What?” he demanded of that presence. “Speaking nonsense she can’t understand doesn’t count. That’s not how consent works!”

He pinched the air, and Taly grabbed her head, pain stabbing through her as the Weave shuddered. The threads of her life strained against the invisible weight pressing on them.

Aneirin nodded. “Oh my, it looks like you’ve already been crowned. The symbol of your reign—it’s always the third gift in the Procession. Three more and you will be asked the question, and then Lachesis herself will rip open your soul and devour everything that you are.”