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I turn my gaze eastward, toward the mountains hidden beyond the night sky. Somewhere out there, the remnants of my network may still exist. Loyalists who remember me, who kept faith during my long absence. I need to find them, mobilize them, and prepare them for what’s to come.

And Ellie?

I glance back toward the shelter where she sleeps, unaware of the forces swirling around her. She has served her purpose by breaking my chains and freeing me from the tower. Logic suggests she has outlived her usefulness.

Yet something about her continues to intrigue me. The tower responded to her in a way it shouldn’t have, in a way it never responded to anyone else who may have approached over the decades. She was drawn here from another world when my spell should have found someone native to this realm. She broke a binding that should have transferred to her instead, imprisoning her in my place. And she opened the door of the tower when its purpose was containment, not liberation.

These are not coincidences, and I do not believe in accidents of fate. Even her strange lack of fear when confronted with my abilities suggests something unusual about her nature. What is she, this woman who sleeps peacefully surrounded by my shadows? What role might she play yet in what’s to come?

I find myself reluctant to dismiss her as merely a tool that has served its purpose. Another curiosity to examine when time permits.

The night deepens around me. I extend my senses, feeling the desert for miles in all directions. Nothing approaches. Nothing threatens. We are alone—the freed prisoner and the woman from another world, moving toward a future neither of us can fully comprehend yet.

But one thing is certain.

My time has come again. And the reckoning begins.

Chapter Nine

ELLIE

“Loyalty is not born. It is revealed when there is no cause left to serve.”

Writings of the Veinblood Masters

The first thingI see when I open my eyes is Sacha standing at the entrance to our shelter. He’s facing east, still and tall, outlined against the pale sky. The sun hasn’t quite cleared the horizon yet, but the air already carries that dry stillness that means the heat isn’t far off.

The strange bed of shadows he created for me last night is still beneath me. It was surprisingly warm and solid. I don’t remember falling asleep, just sinking into quiet, and staying there. I haven’t slept this well since before I arrived in this world. Before Christmas shopping and interdimensional travel turned my life upside down.

I yawn, then stretch slowly, arms over my head, muscles pulling tight from being still for so long. Across the space, Sacha’s head tilts, but he doesn’t turn.

“We should move soon. The air won’t stay cool for long.” His voice is flat in the way I’ve learned to read as focus. Not impatientor disinterested. Just already somewhere ahead of me, planning what comes next.

Sitting up, I reach for the waterskin. My mouth is dry, and sleep still clings to me. The water is lukewarm, but it helps. The sweater I keep telling myself to take off is damp with sweat, clinging under my arms and across my back. My jeans are gritty, and my skin itches. I’d kill for a change of clothes, a toothbrush and ashower. Not necessarily in that order.

When I stand, the bed dissolves beneath me. The shelter around us fades a second later, the shadows pulling back into stone like they were never there at all.

“How far is it to the mountains?”

He turns slightly. “Three days, if we can keep up a steady pace.” He hands me a slice of fruit.

Something about him is different this morning. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is, other than he seems more … present in some way.

“If nothing has changed since I was last here, we’ll be moving into rockier ground by tomorrow. We’ll need to be careful.”

“You said we can find more water today?”

“Yes.” He waves a hand toward the east. “There are plants that store water in their leaves. I’ll show you when we find them.”

The golden sand ripples in the morning breeze as we set off, the light growing brighter, a slight wind lifting the hair on my neck but doing nothing to ease the heat.

Almost an hour passes in silence before I speak.

“Will your captors be looking for you?”

“Not yet.” His eyes stay fixed ahead of us. “I’m sure they believe I’m still safely contained in the tower. By the time they discover my absence, we should be beyond their immediate reach.”

“What happens when they do?”