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Without a second thought, she nodded. ‘I think that would be wise.’

Darkness bloomed around them and a cloak fell in place. It matched the lay of the land, but offered something warmer, kinder: protection. Hope.

‘Stay close,’ the shadow-touched Warsword told her. ‘They can’t tell the difference between our brands of darkness. We should be able to walk right up to the perimeter undetected.’

Thea simply nodded and matched Talemir stride for stride. It was still surreal to think that the man who walked beside her was the dual wielding champion of Thezmarr, the warrior whose records she’d revered in the trophy room of the fortress all her life.

‘You’re truly here to help me break Wilder out of the Scarlet Tower?’ she had asked him on Aveum soil two weeks before.

‘I can’t do it alone. And nor can you,’ he had replied.

And so here they were together, ready to take on the Scarlet Tower, and all the monsters within it. Warsword strength itched at her fingertips. With the way she was feeling, she could crush a wraith skull with her bare hands. The thought was bittersweet, for she’d won the Great Rite and achieved what she’d always wanted, only to have lost something more precious when she emerged.

As they trudged through the dunes and beyond, that Furies-given strength flowed through her freely, dancing with her magic that was begging to be unleashed upon the festering spit of land and the tower on the horizon. The weight of her Naarvian steel sword at her belt was profound, which was just as well, because she was going to use it to cut through every fucking creature who stood between her and Wilder. Man or monster, they would find no mercy at the tip of her blade, not this time, not ever.

‘It’s darker here…’ she murmured. ‘Because of the proximity to the Veil?’

It was the closest she’d ever been to the towering wall of mist that surrounded the midrealms, the barrier that had once supposedly kept the monsters out, but now seemed to be their gateway in. She could feel its otherworldly power, and the call of the realms beyond it.

‘The whole world is this dark now,’ Talemir told her. ‘For a time it happened bit by bit, day by day, but now? It’s been like this for a long time. And it will be forever, unless we do something about it.’

Thea gave a nod. The Shadow Prince was an expert in the darkness that plagued the midrealms. As a part-wraith – or shadow-touched, as they liked to be called – he’d somehow managed to master it, to cloak not only spies and rescue missions, but an entire part of Naarva, hiding it away from the reapers and their ilk.

Around them, the grass thinned out, revealing a swampland ahead. Thea covered her nose and mouth with her hand, her face wrinkling with disgust. It was a wretched expanse of rancid waters and twisted vegetation. The air hung heavy with the stench of decay and death, an eerie fog shrouding the landscape in an ominous grey haze. A boardwalk carved through it all, winding around the reeds and boulders.

‘Think we can trust it?’ Thea asked.

Talemir scoffed. ‘No. But cloaked in shadow? Perhaps.’

‘I’m game if you are…’

‘I don’t think we have another choice.’

‘You could fly us closer to the gates?’

Talemir shook his head. ‘I have zero information on what types of wards are set up around that thing. Matching shadows with shadows is one thing, but I won’t risk us and our mission against defences I know nothing about.’

More ear-piercing shrieks sounded from the monsters beyond, echoing across the murky waters.

‘Fair enough,’ Thea said. ‘Through the swamp we go.’

Cloaked in darkness, they started over the boardwalk trail. Thea’s eyes fell to the marker in the near distance: a sinister monolith, a single spire, hewn from the rotten heart of the island itself – the Scarlet Tower.

‘It looks like a lone turret.’ Talemir’s voice was low. ‘But from what we’ve learnt over the years, there’s a sprawling underground network of dungeons and chambers as well… There’s no knowing where they’re keeping him.’

Thea’s strength radiated from her, and despite the strange ache that plagued the ragged scar at her wrist, she felt stronger than ever, ready to take on whoever she damn well needed to. No one, not a reaper, not the King of Harenth, not the biggest fucking monster in the midrealms, was going to stop her. But as much as she wanted to storm the place, she knew they had to be strategic.

‘I couldn’t bring reinforcements,’ Talemir murmured. ‘The rest of our forces are gathering to fight, and with the war ahead, we had no one else to spare.’

‘Save for you…’

‘They weren’t exactly happy with me leaving when I did. But I’d never leave Wilder to this fate.’

‘He should never have been here in the first place,’ Thea replied, her breath catching as she spotted specks of light dancing among the reeds. She felt a sudden longing to follow them off the boarded path. The beautiful specks of light pulsed, beckoning her, promising something wonderful ahead —

A muscled arm linked through hers. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Talemir warned.

The sound of his voice snapped Thea right out of her trance. ‘What the fuck…?’ she muttered, staring after the lights that bobbed away from them.