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“We truly are doomed,” I wail, banging my head against the cold wall of the cave-den. Repeatedly. “Just leave me here to fossilize.”

Well, Draven and Draxis are doomed. Sin is prepared to shoot Shadow Fire straight at them in order to finish this. Says it’s what Draven would want. I get it. I do. But I still feel like crying.

“I’m sorry, K—”

Sin doesn’t finish. Because something black and smoky starts curling into the air between us. Magic.

We’re both on our feet in an instant.

“What the hell is that? How is magic forming in this place,” I hiss, backing up.

The smoke pulses and twists until a translucent figure starts to flicker through it. In and out, like a broken candle flame. It’s a woman. Her . Sin’s mate.

She finally stabilizes, turned toward him. But then she turns to me. And stays focused on me.

“Okay, no. What is this?” I demand, voice sharp. “How are you doing this?”

“Hello,” she says gently, voice soft like a feather. “I’m sorry for the intrusion. I’m astral projecting.”

She tucks a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

“My mate bond,” she stops and peeks over her shoulder at Sin, before correcting herself, “ our mate bond gave me just enough leeway to be able to project myself here. You’re hidden well.

It took a lot of time and energy to find you. Even with the bond guiding me.”

Sin’s voice drops to lethal levels. “What do you want?”

She doesn’t look back at him. Her eyes stay on me.

“You have to kill your mate,” she whispers. “If you don’t, we all die. She’ll take the power of the hellhound and with it, she’ll be able to create hellfire. She won’t stop with the shifters — she’ll make the entire world fall for the glory of her father, the God of War.”

She glances over her shoulder like someone’s watching. “If—”

“Nope.” I cut her off with a snarl. “You don’t get to demand that of me.”

I take a step forward, fury vibrating in my bones. “I don’t want to kill my own mate.” A surge of frustrated defiance rises inside me. To hell with this whole situation. “Fuck the world. If my mate dies, then you can die, too. Everyone can fucking die!”

I raise my chin and scowl at her. My voice is shaking. My hands aren’t. “I will not kill Draven. Not if I can’t bring him back. Take your plan and shove it up your astral behind!”

She blinks. Once. Then twice.

Another strand of hair gets tucked nervously behind her ear. “You didn’t let me finish,” she says, her voice quiet, almost pleading.

Sin steps toward me, and Sinalyn flinches when he enters her line of sight.

Guilt tugs at me — I might’ve snapped too harshly. But being this close to losing Draven, and still not having a way to save him, is turning my brain into a battleground. I'm running out of sanity.

“Then finish what you came to say and get out,” Sin snarls, venom dripping from every word. He stops at my side, arms crossed tight across his chest like he’s holding back the urge to rip her apart.

Sinalyn drops her gaze. When she speaks, she brings her eyes back up to me, still not looking at him.

“I didn’t think you’d be willing to kill your mate,” she says quietly. “Not if he stayed dead. But you’re the only chance we have to win against my mother.” She takes a shaky breath. “There was no hope before. But the hellhound created a weak spot — his chest. I saw it in the fight.”

Oh, stars! The witch is her mother?! This just keeps getting worse.

“Shadow Fire could finish the job just as well,” Sin snaps, voice cold enough to freeze the cave.

Sinalyn flinches again and casts a quick glance his way before dropping her gaze.

“Even if you had it, Shadow Fire wouldn’t rot a hellhound,” she murmurs.

“And my mother… she’s shielded. Layers of protection are woven around her and my sister.

You’d never get close enough. She needs to be weakened.

If the king dies, even for a moment, the magic tethered to him will break and recoil.

It’ll lash back at her. That’s when she’ll be most vulnerable. ”

Her hands twist together, knuckles white. She looks around like someone’s watching, then locks eyes with me and speaks faster, urgent.

“You’re the only one who can get close enough.

He’s very deep under the spell now, but he’ll still hesitate to hurt his mate.

You’ll have seconds, maybe less. You need to kill him and mark him at the exact same time .

Not before — the magic will infect you, too.

Only my sister is protected from it. And not after — it would be too late.

He would remain dead. But if you do it at the same time as killing him, the bond will anchor him to you.

It’ll be complete on your side and it’ll drag him back. ”

Her head tilts sharply, like she just heard something. Her whole body stiffens.

“My time’s up,” she whispers, already flickering.

“Wait — why are you helping us?” I ask, my voice sharper than I intend.

She looks at me one last time, something raw and aching in her eyes.

“Because I want to be free.” And she vanishes — just like that. Swallowed by smoke.

We stand there in stunned silence, staring at the space she left behind, until Sin finally speaks.

“She’s lying,” he mutters. “She has to be. This is some kind of angle. She’s the witch’s daughter, for fuck’s sake. I bet Shadow Fire would work on a hellhound.”

“I was going to mark Draven anyway, if we couldn’t find anything else,” I say quietly, my voice hollow. “Maybe she’s lying. But maybe she’s not. And what she said made sense.” Horrifying sense.

Sin lets out a long sigh, rubbing a hand down his face. “Let’s try Shadow Fire first. Just once. If that fails, we’ll try your suicidal hug-of-death-and-devotion plan.”

“We won’t get two tries,” I say, shaking my head. “The witch already knows we’re not going to just roll over and die. She’ll expect us to sneak in at the marking ceremony.”

“ At least if we die, it will be in the arms of our mate, ” Neris chimes in. “ Silver lining? ”

I almost chuckle. Even now, she hasn’t lost her spunk.

I look up at Sin, eyes narrowed with purpose.

“We’re not sneaking in.”

I roll my shoulders back, heart racing. “We’re blowing the damn doors off.”