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“No,” I managed.

If I wasn't what I thought I was, then what did that mean for everything else? For my loyalty to Sídhe? For my place in the Guard? For every choice I'd made thinking I understood who and what I was?

But there was something else too, something I didn't want to acknowledge—a sense of relief. As if some part of me had always known I was different, had been waiting for someone to finally see it. To name it. To understand it.

Rethlyn stepped towards me again with questioning eyes.

“Don’t you dare,” I directed at him, my hand flying up in a warning. “Whatever you did before, don’t even fucking think about tryingthatagain.”

“Hey now,” Rethlyn responded, holding his arms up in submission. “I was just trying to help.”

“It’s my turn to ask questions.” I eyed Vexa, my voice rigid.

She matched my stare and nodded.

“Alright Talon, you’re dismissed,” she said, gesturing for him to leave. “Run back to the Citadel.”

The man simply looked at me, then at Vexa, but his eyes rested on Aether the longest as he stood, straightening his robes.

“If you really believe she could be a Duskbound, you know there’s only one way he’ll ever believe it.” Talon gave Aether a knowing look and turned for the door.

“What is he talking about?” I asked, glancing around, but the room grew heavy. Everyone seemed to stiffen—everyone except Aether.

He sighed, leaning forward onto the table. “You have to meet the Void.”

Some unknown dread coiled in my stomach at his tone. “What exactlyisthe Void?”

“The most dreadful place you could imagine,” Effie muttered.

“Effie,” Vexa warned, her sharp tone cutting through the air. Turning back to me, she explained, “An ancient thing—a mass of darkness that engulfs the Northernmost part of the realm.”

I shifted my gaze to Rethlyn. He had risen from his seat, his eyes fixed on the wall. “It’s the only darkness our eyes can’t penetrate,” he said quietly. “The Void isn’t just a place, it’s an absence—an emptiness that consumes not only matter but the very essence of being. To step into it is to be unmade.” His voice faltered slightly, his gaze distant, as though recalling some long-buried memory.

Acid churned in my stomach, a cold sweat breaking over my skin.

Vexa’s voice dropped to a near whisper, as if she spoke of something she shouldn’t repeat. “When you enter the Void, there are three possibilities.”

She glanced at Aether, her words slow and deliberate. “If you can resist the cold—the death it promises—If you manage to survive in the first place, you’ll stumble out with void burns. You become a vessel.” Vexa looked down to her arm as she rolled her sleeve, revealing the black markings that covered her skin.

“Or?” I asked.

Aether’s eyes flicked to mine, shadows pooling in the corners of his golden irises. His voice dropped, ragged and thick. “Or, you come out unscathed—at least on the outside. But make no mistake, you’ve been marked. These shadows stitch themselves into your very soul, carving their instructions so deep, they become inherent. As easy as breathing.” He paused, his gaze sharpening.

“You come out a true wielder. You emerge a Duskbound.”

I let out a sigh. “And the third?”

“Death.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Well,it's certainly clear why you didn't lead with that." The words came out sharp, but they didn't match the tremor in my hands, the hollowness spreading in my chest. An ancient thing that consumed everything it touched. Was that what called to me? Was that what lived inside me?

I shot up from my chair, needing to move, to escape the weight of what they were asking of me.

“Fia wait. I know how it sounds.” Vexa’s voice called from behind me. “What you must be feeling?—”

"Youdon't know anything about what I'm feeling." I spun around, my voice steadier than I felt. "I remember what the shadows felt like in Emeraal. What theydidto me." I pressed a hand to my chest, where the shadows Aether had injected me with still stirred beneath my skin. "I nearly lost myself."