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My thoughts again turn to Adam. To Mary and the baby, dead at his feet. I exchange a worried glance with Derek.

“I am as concerned as you,” he says quietly, “regarding recent developments. But I don’t know anything more. Only that, once her sisters, the other Fates, learned of what the Maiden was doing, they fought. And no one has seen them since. Without the Fates, the Order collapsed.”

“Were you close to them?” I ask.

"To the Fates?" He chuckles. “Not at all. We never even saw their faces. The Fates were...more goddesses than leaders. Something to be grasped at, worshipped even, but never fully understood.”

A light rain begins to fall, and it quickly picks up. I look to Derek, but he shrugs. The brewing storm isn't his doing. Nor mine. My cloak is getting soaked and Liam puts an arm around me, his fire powers warming me. “Hurry,” he says, guiding me forward, the others following.

He guides us under an archway still intact, towards stairs that lead underground. Before descending, I pause to take a last look at the statues. Three silhouettes in the distance. Rain splashing on their cloaks. Lightning flashing behind them. It reminds me of a dream I once had.

Of a voice in that dream."You should have died with your mother."

Shivering, I descend into darkness.

* * *

We entera tunnel that smells of mildew and old dirt and something dead. I crinkle my nose and try to acclimate my night vision, but there isn't enough light to do much good. I feel around and find old torches lining the walls, long ago made useless by time, the elements, and lack of use. But with a flick of his hand, Liam lights them all.

"You'll have to teach me how to do that," I say.

Liam nods with a smile.

As each fire comes to life, the hall lights up, revealing crumbling old stone and the remains of dead rats.

I grab one of the torches since I don't have the see-in-the-dark superpowers they do, and we travel deeper and deeper. I do my best to avoid stepping on anything dead…or alive, as we walk.

"What will you do if…if your brother is still here?" I ask, my voice echoing off the walls.

Liam glances at me, his brow furrowed. Sebastian avoids my gaze and Elijah and Derek keep walking.

"Will you free him?" I ask, pressing the issue. "If he's still imprisoned?"

“Never,” says Sebastian, without looking at me. “He would be a danger to us. To you.”

“We would have to vote,” says Elijah, glancing at his brother with a frown.

“Over a thousand years of imprisonment,” says Liam. “I think Cole has paid enough.”

I look to Derek, who answers after a moment. “Perhaps Cole deserves to be free,” he says. And then more softly, “Perhaps we should be the ones to pay.”

I study his solemn face, his wounded eyes, and I reach for his hand and squeeze it. Despite our recent arguments, he squeezes back. It was only a few days ago that these men were ready to take their own lives in payment for their sins. Their demons still haunt them...even if they’ve chosen to fight on.

“We’re here,” says Liam, and I follow him through an opening and into an antechamber. It's a massive stone room with painted carvings in the walls, most of which have faded with time.

But there's one I can still make out.

A woman's face framed by flowing silver hair that match her eyes.

I catch Elijah staring at it, then he quickly glances away.

In the center of the room a black, steel sarcophagus hangs from the ceiling, wrapped in silver chains.

I shiver at the sight of it, and the brothers all stop, staring at it as well.

I can't even imagine what it would do to a person to be locked in that for over a thousand years. I would go mad. Anyone would.

Even the shadows seem to swirl around it as if they, too, fear getting close to the monstrous prison. There's a dark energy in this room. A dangerous poison that creeps over my skin and bleeds into me.