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Before she could ask anything more, Draevyn turned abruptly, his gaze moving to the walls.

“But enough about all of that,” he muttered, his voice flat.

“It’s possible that I missed something while you were unconscious and I was checking things out.

After all, I was afraid to leave you defenseless on the ground. ”

I was afraid to leave you. Her chest felt odd, like her heart was fluttering.

Draevyn moved away from her, his eyes scanning the carvings within the walls on the cavern’s edge. She watched him, her heart still heavy with everything he had revealed in such few words.

Draevyn was just as lost as she was. Just as alone.

Esmyra couldn’t help but feel a strange closeness growing between them—a bond forged in shared scars and different paths that had somehow led them to the same place.

Half of her conjured merlights followed him as he drifted to the farthest edge of the cavern. She examined the walls and floor for any signs of a hidden path, anything they might’ve missed when they arrived here before chaos broke loose.

Esmyra sighed, running a hand through her hair and twirling a lock around her finger as she felt the weight of Maerinys’ dome pressing down on her.

And that was when she realized what they were truly standing in .

Her eyes flared before narrowing on certain carvings and pillars, and then her gaze darted in all directions.

This wasn’t a cavern at all.

It was a temple.

Each kingdom had a temple dedicated to their ruling god—and this, what they were standing in the center of, was the temple dedicated to the goddesses of the sea.

“All gods,” she whispered, jaw hanging open as her neck craned up toward the domed ceiling.

And then her gaze found the once grand stone depictions of Kaelypso and Naerysa. Their figures were seated on enormous thrones, half crumbled with veined cracks, encrusted with barnacles and sea moss.

Draevyn’s voice cut through the silence a moment later. “Come here. I think I’ve found something.”

Her pulse quickened as she ran to him, making her way around the jagged rocks and broken pillars. The darkness thickened as she raced around the ancient statues, and then she halted at his side.

“It’s a door,” he said, almost to himself, brushing aside a thick layer of moss and revealing more rune symbols hidden beneath.

Esmyra took a step closer, her gaze falling to the center of the stone door, where all the runes encircled that same trident and serpent emblem from his book.

They seemed to be guarding it, protecting it.

“Drae,” she started and she could’ve sworn his body stiffened at the nickname. “I think this symbol is a crest—the Aeress family crest.”

He blew out a breath. “That would make the most sense. But why isn’t it shown all throughout Maerinys? Normally, there are banners…markings atop their weapons. They have nothing. The only places we’ve seen this so far are?—”

“The book and the arch that led us in here,” she finished. “Why wouldn’t Syrena have our family crest displayed?”

“I find myself questioning just about everything when it comes to her,” he admitted.

Returning her focus to the door, she reached out, her fingers slightly grazing the stone. The carvings twinkled faintly at her touch, just as the others had when they stumbled upon the cave.

Esmyra couldn’t deny the magnetic pull that seemed to beckon her behind the wall.

“I know I’ve had a habit of telling you not to touch things…” Draevyn began, and a grin crept up her face. “But this one, I think you should.” He stepped aside as he nodded slowly, his dimple on full display.

“Something’s behind there,” she said. “I can feel it.”

His gaze found hers. “Then maybe that pull you’ve felt this whole time wasn’t to the kingdom itself…but to whatever is locked behind here.”

“Aye,” she whispered.

With a steadying breath, Esmyra pressed her hand to the center of the trident symbol, feeling the stone’s chill seep through her skin.

The emblem’s glow grew blinding, stretching to all the runes surrounding it. The door shuddered, a deep rumble echoing around them, and then, suddenly, it fell through the ground, as if sliding into a secret pocket in the earth.

Esmyra jumped back, yelping at the sudden shift of stone, but was steadied by Draevyn’s hands as they found her hips. She found herself yearning to lean into his touch.

Endless clouds of dust erupted before her, followed by the overwhelming scent of stale, briny air.

Once the dust settled, it revealed a dark chamber.

They exchanged a look, and with a wave of her hand, the merlight orbs floated into the space, illuminating it for them as they followed.

At the center of the space, on a raised stone platform, were two massive stone slabs with runes carved along their sides. And then on the wall directly behind them, the blades of two daggers glinted in the merlight.

“It’s a crypt,” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.

The walls of the chamber were lined with deep, rectangular alcoves carved into the stone, resembling gaping mouths. Dust clung to their edges, and cobwebs draped like veils over the sealed tombs .

Draevyn stepped closer to the platform in its center, his eyes lingering on the carved symbols. “This must be where the Aeress family is put to rest.”

A strange sensation washed over her, a feeling that seemed to root itself in the very marrow of her being. Without thinking, Esmyra walked up the platform as Draevyn remained standing just before it, watching her.

Atop the rune-covered slabs, fully intact skeletons were laid to rest. But that wasn’t all that caught her eye—on the remains were those same markings her flesh bore, carved into the bones of the deceased.

Standing before them, an odd sensation ignited in her chest—something raw, almost intimate, as if an invisible thread bound her to the remains scattered across the stones.

“Wildfire?”

She knew Draevyn was near, but his voice couldn’t have sounded farther away.

A shiver ran along her spine, not from the cold, damp air, but from the ancient magic whispering through her veins and calling out to her.

The beckoning began as a gentle pull, a lightness in the chest that suddenly erupted into a deep ache.

“ Touch it ,” the siren whispered from within.

Esmyra’s hand stretched toward the bones, and the last sound she heard was Draevyn as he screamed for her. His voice was pained, it was desperate . But by the time she realized he said the word no , it was already too late.