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CALLUM

S tefan’s voice cuts through the trees like a whip.

“We don’t take orders from animals like you.”

Kendall flinches beside me.

And something inside me snaps .

I step forward, slow and deliberate, every inch of me crackling with control I don’t want to hold onto.

Stefan lifts his chin when I approach, but I can smell the fear on him Not the kind you show. The kind that seeps into your sweat and stutters your heartbeat when you realize you're standing in front of something you don’t understand anymore.

“You got one shot to walk away,” I say, voice low. “And I’d take it if I were you.”

He scoffs, shoulders squared. “You think I’m scared of you?”

“I know you are.”

“You don’t know shit.”

“No?” I tilt my head. “I know you loved her. Once. I know you held her hand and kissed her mouth and told her she made your world better.”

His nostrils flare.

“And then the second she changed into something you didn’t understand, you turned her into a target. You led these bastards to her. Followed her through the shadows like some vulture waiting for her to bleed out. With the numbers you brought, I can tell you thought she wouldn't have this many of us. You won’t win.”

He doesn’t respond. Doesn’t move.

I step even closer.

“You don’t have to understand her. You don’t even have to like what she’s becoming. But don’t pretend you ever gave a damn about her if this is how it ends. If this—” I gesture to the crowd behind him, all fire and fear “—is what you chose.”

His jaw twitches.

But he says nothing.

“Get gone,” I growl. “And pray you never see me again.”

He stares at Kendall for one long second.

“We have bigger things we’re planning. You’ll get yours, wolf,” one of them says through gritted teeth.

Then Stefan spits at the ground and turns, disappearing into the trees without another word.

His seemingly new crew follows, silent. Not brave. Just cowardly enough to live.

I don’t realize I’m shaking until Kendall touches my hand.

“Callum,” she says softly.

“I was going to kill him,” I murmur.

“I know.”

“I still might.”

She squeezes my hand. “But you didn’t. And that means more than he’ll ever understand.”

I turn to her.

She’s strong. Fierce. Still trembling under the surface. But her eyes are clear. Her jaw steady.

“I don’t know how you held back,” she whispers.

I touch her cheek, rough and gentle all at once. “You were worth it.”

The others split off to their own safe houses as we reach ours near the western ridge by nightfall. A half-buried bunker overgrown with ivy and forgotten by the city years ago. It smells like wet stone and iron and just enough security to sleep for a few hours without fear of a knife in the ribs.

Elias is already waiting.

He raises an eyebrow as we enter. “Thought you might’ve died.”

“Almost did,” I say. “We need to talk.”

We sit around the cracked map table while Kendall stays curled in the far corner, half-listening, half gone. Her eyes haven’t left the flame in the fireplace since we walked in, like she’s watching something move in the shadows between sparks.

Elias stares at me hard. “Tell me everything.”

I explain it all. The tunnel. The sigils. The door. The emptiness. The symbols on the floor. The presence .

When I’m done, Elias exhales and pulls out his notebook—his personal one. The one even I don’t touch.

He flips to a page near the back and turns it around.

I blink.

It’s the exact same pattern we saw on the floor of the chamber.

“You knew?”

“I didn’t know ,” he says. “I suspected. It’s not a weapon, Callum.”

My stomach drops. “Then what the hell is it?”

“A vessel.”

He taps the page. “These weren’t containment markings. They were preparation. A way to hold something that doesn’t belong in this world.”

I sit back, cold and sweating at the same time. “So what was in it?”

“Something old. Ancient. It was never supposed to wake up. But someone did it anyway.”

I glance at Kendall.

She meets my gaze, eyes distant.

“I didn’t open it on purpose,” she says quietly.

“I know.”

“But it knew me.”

“Because it was meant to.”

Elias shakes his head. “And now that it’s empty…”

“It’s not empty, ” Kendall says. “It’s moved. ”

Elias looks at her sharply. “How do you know?”

“I don’t.” She shudders. “But I feel it.”

That night, Elias stays up cataloging the runes, I find her out on the balcony overlooking the trees.

She’s barefoot. Wrapped in one of the old blankets. Her hair’s loose and wild, eyes reflecting moonlight like liquid silver.

I know I should head back to the compound and check in with Mathis. I’m sure he has Vaan looking for me, or maybe they are too buddy with war plans. EIther way, I don’t care right now. I only care about her.

“You okay?” I ask.

Her eyes stay to the ground.. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.”

“Then we’ll be not okay together.”

That gets the smallest twitch at the corner of her mouth.

I move to her side and slide an arm around her waist. She leans in without hesitation.

“I was scared you’d hate me,” she says. “After what happened down there. After what I opened.”

I pull her closer. “You didn’t open it. You survived it. If anything, I think you being awakened triggered it, not you going there.”

Her eyes lift to mine. “Do you believe I’m a key?”

“I believe you’re more than that.”

“What if it was meant to be me? What if I’m part of whatever’s coming?”

“Then we fight it together.”

“And if it changes me?”

I touch her face, thumb brushing her cheek. “Then I’ll fall in love with every version you become.”

That’s it.

She leans in and kisses me—slow and aching and full of the kind of fear you only feel when you’ve finally found something you don’t want to lose.

We stay like that for a long time. No answers. Just stars. And warmth. And the promise of something worth fighting for.