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Lore

“ T wo weeks and six days.” She clenched her hands into fists, and I hated that her eyes shimmered with tears. The soft part of me ached to hold her, to tell her everything would be alright even when, deep in my heart, I suspected it wouldn’t. The sharper part of me wanted to lay waste to the world, to storm across the land until I found Prager. I’d wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze until she was nothing but a limp carcass.

But I suspected her curse would live on even if she died.

Reyla lifted and cradled her hand against her chest, and she studied me, her gaze sharp but carrying the frustration and dismay churning through me. “The first talisman is here at Evergorne, but where?”

Farris looked between us, almost as if he was listening to our conversation.

I had no idea where to begin. This castle held too many secrets, and it seemed every one of them was locked behind unknown mechanisms or riddles.

“It can be found. The fates have made sure of that.” She turned back to the altar and stared, almost mesmerized as she spun the ring around and around on her finger.

Her gaze narrowed. Without another word, she removed the ring, holding it between two fingers, scowling down at it as though she was tempted to throw it against a wall. With a growl, she moved closer to the altar.

“What are you doing?” I matched my steps to hers.

Determination flashed across her face. With a quick dart of her arm, she tucked the ring back into the depression at the center of the altar. The moment the stone slid into place, she stepped backward, her hand fleeing to the hilt of her dagger sheathed at her side.

“What did you?—”

The room shuddered. A low, thunderous boom rang out, shaking the stone beneath our feet again.

The twin dragons burst into life, writhing on the top of the altar, their spines snapping and coiling, their tails whipping through the air. Their eyes burned gold, as though suns had been trapped within their sockets. One unfurled its massive head, its neck arching with a serpent’s grace, and fire erupted from its jaws to blaze across the altar at its feet. The flames melted the surface, pooling the carvings into a swirling mass of liquid before its blaze cut out.

With a snap, the second dragon’s head twisted. It pinned us with a gaze that was both predatory and calculating.

Its clawed hands extended toward us .

I hauled in power and thrust Reyla behind me.

With a grunt, she flitted to stand at my side.

“Don’t try to hide me,” she said. “I stand with you at all times.” Her hand flicked toward the altar, the surface swirling like oil on water, and her voice lowered to a whisper. “I had to do it. Everything inside me told me the ring belonged there, that it had already satisfied my need. And that power I swallowed? I?—”

“What power you…swallowed?”

“It forced itself down my throat. Nullification power. I think.”

Fuck.

“Anyway, I sent some of it out through the ring.”

“And now?—”

Two flaming orbs blossomed at the ends of the dragon's outstretched claws, spinning in a mesmerizing pattern above its palms. One burned a brilliant silver, the other the deepest red I’d ever seen. The two flames balanced side-by-side, separated but somehow complementing each other.

The light painted Reyla’s face in silver and red. “Evergorne colors.”

The altar pulsed, sending a tremor through the air that was alive with enough magic to make my hair stand on end. Words began to take shape in the molten surface, glowing as though carved by the stone structure itself. I jerked closer, my jaw tightening as I read the words out loud before the letters vanished back into nothingness. “The fire is one. Answer the challenge and match its essence.”

“Essence,” Reyla hissed. “The first talisman is here .”

The fiery orbs shifted, rising into the space above us. They darted in our direction and began circling us, their pulsing glow filling the chamber with a heat that sank past my skin, seeking my bones. The colors flashed in a hypnotic pattern, dancing across the altar, the floor, us .

They came close, the first orb grazing the air near my shoulder, the searing heat forcing me to step backward. My arm brushed against Reyla's, and the flame's light dimmed instantly, as though repelled by our connection. She looked my way, her eyes wide.

“They respond to us,” she said in a low voice. Frowning, she studied the way the orbs spun faster when I drifted farther from her. “They don’t want us divided.”

A trial, then. Not one of magic or strength but of our bond, the way our love had fused the halves of my being into one whole. I hadn’t spent most of my life trying to figure this out, to build on what little my father could tell me before he died, only to lose everything now.

“No curse, no trial, no ancient magic can undo what we’ve achieved together,” she said, shooting me a radiant smile. She stepped closer to me, her shoulder touching mine. “The challenge isn't about avoiding the flames. It’s about us .”

She found my hand and linked our fingers together. The impact of that simple connection drew both our magic, combining it into one, and a jolt of energy rippled out of us. It blasted through the air like lightning. The orbs stuttered mid-spin, their flames coiling closer as though drawn to the energy we generated.

I raised my free hand toward the silver flame while Reyla mirrored me with the red, her grip on my hand tightening. Both orbs flared once, twice, then leaped toward us.

They hit, but instead of burning, the fires twisted together, melding into a single dance of color, a blur of silver and red. The orbs continued to spin, the screaming whir of their movement nearly deafening. Pivoting, they swirled toward the altar’s center.

Their unified fire turned into a blaze of light, a final burst of heat flaring to blast across us in a heavy wave before the light winked out and silence echoed inside the chamber .

The dragons coiled back to face each other, again taking on the position on the Evergorne Crest, with their wings and tails extended out behind them. They locked into place and turned to smooth stone.

A key hovered between them, its golden sheen reflecting the glow from Reyla's outstretched finger. A blue stone glistened on its shaft, the exact color as the stone in the ring. The key drifted away from the altar in slow, swaying arcs, approaching us before finally coming to rest in Reyla’s outstretched palm. Her light caught the gem’s facets, making it gleam, before it winked out and was absorbed by the key, leaving only swirling gold behind.

“This is nowhere over yet,” she said grimly, not looking away from the key.

“Not even close.” My voice dropped off. I thought of the other objects, of Halendor’s schemes and Irridain’s greed. How much we still had to do with so little time.

But we were ready for this challenge.

A shriek echoed through the chamber, a wrenching lash of anger and dismay. I’d heard it before. Inside the throne room when my mother collapsed and, in the marketplace, when I’d somehow sent the borgons away.

Prager.

Farris’s fur bristled, and he darted over to stand between us and the back wall of the cave, a growl ripping up his throat.

We pulled our blades and put our backs to each other, seeking the threat, but if Prager was here, she wasn't brave enough to show herself.

“We found the first talisman, Prager,” Reyla shouted, holding up the key before securing it in her pocket. “We'll find the others. You hear me? We're going to sever this curse forever!”