Page 12

Finn

I'm pretty sure watching the person you're falling for kiss someone else you're also falling for isn't covered in any self-help books. Then again, maybe I just haven't found the right section: "So You're In Love With A Shadow Queen And A Brooding Prince - Now What?"

From my poorly chosen vantage of fake-sleeping, I watch Malrik kiss Kaia through barely open eyes.

Something sharp twists beneath my ribs, not quite pain and not quite longing—more like hunger with teeth.

My usual jokes feel stuck somewhere between my lungs and throat, which is probably for the best. Even I can read a room. Usually. Sometimes.

Bob—bless his tiny militant heart—seems torn between approved surveillance and respectful privacy.

He settles for what I swear is an embarrassed shuffle before resuming his patrol.

Patricia's shadow-notes have taken on a distinctly romantic novel quality, while Finnick appears to be practicing what looks suspiciously like wedding choreography.

Traitors, all of them.

But before I can properly wallow in the irony of my favorite shadows betraying me for the cause of true love, something shifts in the air. The wrongness that's been hovering at the edges of my awareness since we entered this realm suddenly sharpens, like reality itself is holding its breath.

Malrik pulls back from Kaia first, his expression cracking open with a loss that hits me harder than I expect. I know that look. I've felt it every time I've wanted to reach for either of them and stopped myself.

"I know," Malrik says quietly, and for a moment I think he's talking to me before I realize he's responding to something Kaia said.

Then I see it: the darkness beyond our camp isn’t moving. It’s hunting.

I'm on my feet before I make the conscious decision to move, my usual grin falling away as chaos magic crackles between my fingers. "Not to interrupt the romantic tension," I say, because apparently I physically cannot help myself, "but I think we have company."

The twins snap awake instantly, their transformations already rippling beneath their skin. Torric's shoulders broaden as flames lick along his arms, while frost crystallizes in Aspen's hair. The way they move in perfect sync would be fascinating if I wasn't busy trying not to die.

"You know," I add as shapes begin to emerge from the writhing darkness, "when I said I wanted more excitement in my life, this really wasn't what I had in mind."

Bob snaps into full general mode, coordinating the other shadows into battle formations with military precision. Walter just drifts through the camp like he doesn't have a care in the world. And who knows, maybe he doesn't.

The first creature that steps into the firelight looks like someone tried to sculpt a nightmare out of liquid darkness and gave up halfway through. Its form shifts constantly, as if it can't decide what shape horror should take.

"Well," I manage, "that's delightfully terrifying. "

More emerge behind it, each one worse than the last. Their eyes—if you can call them that—fix on Kaia with hungry intensity.

The ache in my chest flares. I move without thinking, placing myself between her and the creatures. Malrik does the same, his silver eyes gleaming with deadly purpose.

"Any chance they're just looking for directions?" I ask, but my voice has lost its usual lightness. The pull toward Kaia is almost painful now, matched only by my need to reach for Malrik.

The creatures surge forward as one, and chaos erupts.

Magic explodes from my hands in wild bursts of color, each blast tearing through the creatures' liquid forms. But they reform almost instantly, like oil flowing back together.

The twins are magnificent in their fury—Torric's flames carving paths through darkness while Aspen's ice traps the creatures in crystalline prisons that shatter and reform.

"Is anyone else getting tired of these guys not staying dead?" I call out, ducking under what might be a claw or a tentacle—honestly, their anatomy is questionable at best.

Kaia's wings flare with brilliant light as she takes to the air, her shadows moving like a coordinated army beneath her.

Bob's leading the charge with military precision while Patricia appears to be documenting enemy weaknesses.

Even Finnick has abandoned his usual chaos in favor of synchronized attack patterns.

Carl and Steve surround one of the creatures while Linda tries her best to distract it.

But Walter… Walter just drifts through it all, touching corrupted ground that briefly blazes with cleansing light before the darkness seeps back in. The corruption retreats wherever he passes, but only for moments—like he's testing the boundaries of something larger than himself .

A creature lunges for Kaia, and my heart lodges somewhere in my throat. Malrik's shadows surge up, tangling with the beast while I blast it with enough chaos magic to level a small building. The thing screams—a sound that should not exist in any realm—and dissolves.

For half a second, I think we might actually survive this.

Then I see it—the way the corruption seems to pulse beneath the ground, reaching for Kaia like hungry veins. My warning dies in my throat as one of the shadow creatures clips her wing.

She falls.

The world stops.

I'm moving before I register the decision, chaos magic exploding from me with more power than I knew I possessed. Malrik reaches her first, catching her before she hits the ground. The look on his face—gods, I never want to see that expression again. Not on him. Not for her.

"No, no, no," I mutter, dropping to my knees beside them.

Black veins are already spreading across her skin, corruption seeping into her like poison.

Her shadows are frantic—Bob trying to organize a defense while Patricia's notes become increasingly desperate.

Finnick darts between us all, his usual playful energy transformed into panicked movement.

"We need to—" Malrik starts, but a roar cuts him off.

The sound shakes the very air, and for a moment, I think another creature is about to end us all. But this is different. This feels… ancient. Powerful. Wrong.

A figure drops from the writhing sky, his landing cracking the corrupted ground. A wave of energy pulses outward like Walter's touch but magnified a thousandfold, making the creatures scatter into the darkness as if fleeing something they recognize as deadlier than themselves .

The stranger rises slowly, and there's something about his movements that feels wrong—too fluid, too precise, like he's having to remember how limbs should work.

His eyes catch the firelight in a way that human eyes shouldn't, reflecting gold for just a moment before settling into a more natural shade.

Then he sees Kaia.

The change that comes over him steals my breath—not because of what he does, but because of what he doesn't do.

He goes completely still, the kind of stillness that belongs to predators and ancient things.

The power rolling off him stutters, like a heart skipping a beat.

When he looks at her, his expression cracks open with something so raw and complicated that I have to look away.

"I'm here," he says, and his voice carries like harmonics that make my teeth ache. "You're safe now, little star."

The corruption in her veins seems to pause its spread at his presence, or maybe it's responding to the strange energy rolling off him in waves.

"Who—" I start to ask, but Malrik's sharp intake of breath stops me.

"Kieran," he breathes, and there's something in his voice I've never heard before. "The Dragon of the Void."

Oh, I think hysterically as Kieran kneels beside us, that's just perfect. Because we definitely needed to add whatever the void this is to our mess.

But the way he touches her—gentle, reverent, like he's remembering how to handle something breakable—kills the quip on my tongue.

His hands glow with light that pulses like breath, like something alive and ancient, not quite light, not quite shadow.

There's a story here, written in the tension of his shoulders and the way his hands shake slightly despite their steady glow .

I look at Malrik, finding my own confusion mirrored in his silver eyes. The ache in my chest pulses, drawing me toward both him and Kaia even as this newcomer changes everything.

Well, I think as Kieran begins working magic I've never seen before, at least life's never boring.