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When we slipped back through the secret door, we found the guild’s basement was in shambles. Rubble littered the ground, and

pieces of the walls and roof were strewn across the floor. I didn’t understand what was happening until the ground beneath

me trembled, causing several shelves to crash to the ground and spill their contents everywhere.

“Maederyss forgive me.” Raithe leaned back against the bricks, his eyes blank, his expression dazed. Slowly, he slid down

the wall until he was sitting, resting his arms on his knees and bowing his head. “I tried, but I couldn’t stop it.”

Seeing the calm, stoic assassin like that should have shaken me to the core, but I couldn’t feel anything. Now that we were

away from the immediate danger, everything I’d just experienced crashed down on me all at once. Jeran was dead. Vahn had killed

him to bring the Deathless King back to life. He would have done the same to me. Without thought. Without remorse. Everything

I thought I knew about him was wrong. I didn’t know what to think, or feel.

I did know one thing. This wasn’t Raithe’s fault.

It was mine.

“What do we do now?” I whispered.

The assassin shook his head wearily. “There is nothing we can do.” He sounded resigned.

“At least, not here. You cannot slay a Deathless—not even the kings of old could destroy one of their own. They draw life energy from everything around them. Only when there is no life left do they become mortal.”

I shuddered. Only now, when it was too late, did I understand. Why Raithe had been so determined to stop the summoning. Why

he would track someone through an ancient underground city filled with monsters and curses. Why he would kill to prevent the

soulstone from being disturbed. The Deathless King couldn’t be slain. There was nothing that could stop him from doing whatever

he pleased within Kovass.

And all of this could have been prevented, had I never set foot in the undercity. .

“I... I have to get home.” On the floor, Raithe stirred and pushed himself to his feet. “I have to get back to Irrikah

and warn the queen that... that I’ve failed.”

“Where is home for you?” I asked.

“Very far from here.” Raithe took a breath, and some of his composure returned as he straightened. “Across the Dust Sea and

over the Barren Steppes is Irrikah, the city of my people. It’s time I returned.” Raithe paused, and his pale blue eyes slid

to me, narrowing. “You need to come with me, Fateless.”

I recoiled. There was that word again. Fateless . “Why?”

Another tremor went through the floor, shaking dust loose and sending several pebbles plinking down around us. Raithe’s expression

hardened. “Because this city is doomed,” he told me. “Do you want to stay here when the Deathless King makes himself known?”

“I’ve survived this long,” I said, feeling almost hysterically stubborn.

“That’s all I know how to do, really. I’ll keep surviving, by myself.

” Vahn’s face swam before me, smiling and amused one moment, cold and blank the next.

A stranger. Jeran, laughing and full of life, dead in the next heartbeat, dark eyes staring up at nothing.

“If this taught me anything,” I went on thickly, “it’s that I can’t trust anyone but myself.

I probably will end up leaving the city, but I’ll do it alone. ”

“No, you will not.” Raithe took a step toward me. I tensed and cast a quick glance at the stairs, judging the distance between

us. “Don’t run,” Raithe warned. “You won’t make it far.”

I glared at him. “What are you going to do—tie me up again and stuff me in a sack?”

“I would prefer not to have to do that.” Raithe clenched his jaw, then, to my surprise, lowered his head and pushed back his

hood. His face, fully exposed, was beautiful and haunted as he met my gaze.

“Sparrow.” His voice, low and feather-soft, sent a shiver racing up my back. “I don’t want you as my prisoner, or my enemy.

But you must return with me to Irrikah. Our queen will want to meet you. Because you are the Fateless.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?” I demanded. “Vahn and the Circle said I was Fateless, too.” I remembered the robed figures

pointing at me, hissing at Vahn that the Fateless had to die. And Vahn raising his crossbow in my direction, his eyes hard

and cold. “They were going to kill me because of it,” I went on. “Why? What does it even mean?”

Raithe hesitated. I could see him struggling with what to say. Whatever the Fateless was, he didn’t want to reveal it. “It’s not my place,” he said at last. “The queen is the best one to explain it.”

Which meant I had to go with him to the iylvahn city across the Dust Sea. Away from Kovass and everything I’d ever known.

Dread filled me. I had dreamed of leaving, but not like this.

Another tremor shook the ground, and this time, it didn’t stop. The walls of the basement swayed, more dust and stones raining

down from the ceiling. Cracks appeared in the walls as the earthquake continued to rumble. I staggered and winced as a large

clay pot fell from the shelf and smashed to the floor, shattering into a thousand fragments.

Raithe and I rushed up the stairs. I cast a glance at the tavern as we sprinted for the doors, hoping to catch a glimpse of

Rala. But the bar was empty as we passed, the tables deserted. As we ducked outside, I sent up a quick prayer to Maederrys

that Fate would be kind to Rala, that whatever else happened, she would somehow survive what was to come.

Though I had the horrible feeling that many would meet their fate this day.

The district was in chaos; people were scrambling through the streets and coughing in the haze, which had been stirred into

a nearly impenetrable fog. Dust stung my eyes and clogged my throat, and Raithe quickly pulled up his hood. The air had reached

the thick, searing temperature that heralded Demon Hour. Shielding my face, I gazed at the sky, squinting through the haze

and the dust, and my stomach turned. The color was an ominous orange, and my vision filled with swirling clouds that blotted

out the suns.

Someone slammed into me, knocking me back with a grunt. They continued to stagger down the street, not even looking where they were going. I winced, rubbing my bruised shoulder, and saw Raithe’s eyes narrow.

“We need to get to higher ground,” he said, and took two steps back, gazing up at the large building across the street. “I’m

going to the roofs. Will you be able to keep up?”

A tiny spark of my old defiance emerged, fighting through the horror and the numbness and the fear of what was happening around

me. “I could ask the same of you,” I answered, and darted across the street. I vaulted onto the stone wall of the building

and dug my fingers into the cracks between loose bricks, finding handhold after handhold until I finally scrambled onto the

roof.

Raithe, of course, was right beside me, and together, we straightened and gazed over the rooftops of the city. The heat beat

down on my head, but the scene before me drove anything else from my mind.

From the docks to the Temple of Fate to the palace high on the hill, the entire city was surrounded by a whirling sandstorm.

I couldn’t see the horizon line, or the desert beyond; I couldn’t see anything beyond the city’s edge. The howling storm,

massive and impossible, encompassed all of Kovass, blotting out the light and turning the air red.

In the center of it all, floating above the rooftops, was a figure with bronze skin and eyes like the Void, jet-black hair

snapping in the wind. My stomach twisted at the sight, and I heard Raithe draw in a sharp breath as the Deathless King slowly

turned, surveying the city around him.

This is the world I return to.

The voice echoed in my head, heavy with fury and disgust, seeming to ripple through all of Kovass.

Sand and dust and short-lived insects crawling over one another. Pathetic. A filthy shell of the shining kingdom that used

to be. You do not deserve life. You do not deserve my glory. But I will grant it to you regardless, insects. I will show you

what you have been longing for all this time. Let the shining kingdom rise once again and bury the filth beneath it in the

majesty of your new god!

The Deathless King raised his arms, and the tremors turned to shaking. I staggered as the ground heaved like the waves of

the Dune Sea. When I straightened, my legs went numb and I vibrated with horror. Buildings swayed, rocking like branches in

the wind, and then several of them collapsed to the ground in a muffled roar of stone and dust.

The roof beneath me cracked, one corner falling away and smashing to the street below. Screams rose up from below us, and

the stones under my feet shuddered and began to fracture.

“Come on!” Raithe held out an arm, indicating the edge of the roof. “The whole building is falling apart. Let’s go!”

We scrambled to get clear, leaping off the roof and grabbing the wall of a shorter building. I pulled myself up onto its roof,

then backed away from the edge, watching the Docks District shake and heave like a sick animal. “What’s happening?” I gasped.

“The Deathless King is raising his empire,” Raithe said grimly.

I frowned in confusion, until I realized what he meant, and my mouth dropped open. “You don’t mean... the ancient city ?”

“I told you.” The assassin’s blue eyes met mine, bright with anguish and helpless fury. “No one can stand against the Deathless

King once he rises. He’ll destroy Kovass and replace it with his kingdom, and there’s nothing we can do but flee before it

consumes everything.”

One street over, the ground collapsed with a roar that made my ears throb, sending a plume of dust into the air. The house

that had stood there vanished as well, breaking apart and disappearing into the pit. As I stared, cracks spread across the

road like spiderwebs, and the pointed spire of a tower began rising from the hole.