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Her hand lifted, reaching towards it, but Sorin brushed it aside.

“If anyone is going to get cursed by the thing, it’ll be me,” he muttered, hand closing around the sphere before Scarlett could argue.

The moment he came in contact with it, the symbols faded away. He was left holding an ordinary light grey orb, nothing more than a weight to hold papers in place.

“Anything?” Scarlett asked, eyes fixed on the sphere.

“No, but that does not ease my worry of what will happen when you touch it.”

“It’s why we’re here, right?” she said, holding out her hand.

“You believe this is it?”

“Even if it’s not, it’s clearly something important.” She saw his fingers tighten around the orb. “It has to be me, Sorin,” she said softly, extending her hand. “It’s always had to be me. Fate and all that nonsense, right?”

He huffed a harsh laugh before his other hand came to her chin, tilting her head back. “All the way through the darkness, Love.”

He set the orb in her palm as he spoke. They both sucked in a sharp breath.

And nothing happened.

The sphere remained an inanimate object held between them.

“You have to let go, Sorin.”

“I know, Love,” he replied, his other palm sliding to cup her cheek. “But I also know that this is about to set so many things into motion.”

“The end,” she whispered. “It sets the end of all this into motion.”

His thumb swiped across her cheek before he inhaled another deep breath and stepped back from her. The moment his fingers fell from the orb, the glyphs reappeared, brighter than stars. The sphere became warm in her hand, and the entire thing darkened back to the darkness of deathstone. Shadows seemed to swarm among the glyphs, and she could see… She didn’t know what she was seeing in its depths. Whatever it was, it was moving and shifting too fast for her to decipher.

“How do you feel?” Sorin asked tentatively.

“Fine,” she said after a moment. “I feel fine.”

“You are sure this is the lock?”

“Sure as I can be,” Scarlett said. “Let’s go. Rayner and Kailia must be almost done by now.”

Scarlett took one last look around the apothecary room, making sure they hadn’t overlooked anything. There would be no second chances.

When they were both satisfied after sending a few more books and papers to a pocket realm, they stepped from the room, the heavy doors thudding shut behind them. Scarlett had tried to send the orb to a pocket realm, but it wouldn’t go. Her shadows couldn’t take it, nor her starfire. Her Fae gifts couldn’t touch it, and none of her pockets on the tight-fitting witchsuit were large enough to hold it. So she was left clutching it tightly in one hand, which wasn’t an easy task. It fit easily in Sorin’s large palm, but it was awkward in her smaller one.

Sorin grabbed her other hand, leading her down the stairs once more. This was the way Rayner had directed them to go. He’d told them there would be a hidden door at the bottom that would lead to a chamber. From that chamber, they could follow a small stream out of the cliffs without having to use the main entrance…assuming the boats there weren’t rotted away to nothing from disuse.

When they reached the bottom, Sorin sliced his palm, dragging it along the stone wall until it hit the enchanted doorway. They rushed through it, heading straight to the dock where several small boats were indeed tied off. They didn’t have time to take in the chamber. Not if everyone had completed their tasks. Finding the lock was the least dangerous part of their mission here.

Sorin was inspecting the boats to see which one was safest when a voice had them both whirling.

“Sorin? Scarlett?”

Sorin had flames igniting the chamber in the next breath. It was cavernous and dank, some of the walls covered in moss. Not at all the pristine cleanliness of the rest of the cliffs. Cells lined an entire wall, all empty except for one.

One that contained a Water Prince.

“Briar?” Sorin said in shock, rushing to the cell, Scarlett on his heels. “What are you doing here?”

“I do not know. I was being kept in Earth Court cells until a few nights ago. Alaric showed up and brought me here,” Briar answered. “How is Ashtine?”