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“Yes, sir,” Guardians shouted.

“Nuo,” Brekt whispered, his voice strained.

“Don’t even fucking start,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ve already said my goodbyes to you one time too many.”

A woman screamed, and I turned for the doors behind me. Liv . She was fighting someone in her prayer chamber.

I caught a glimpse of the blue Aethar. She might be the only one of us who would make it out of here. The Aethar found me watching and shifted her attention behind me, nodding her head.

I followed her line of sight to where Kazhi had been lying.

With the distraction of the Deathmakers, I had missed that she was no longer lying across the shrine room.

I scanned the debris—Kazhi was inching around a large piece of stone wall, hidden in the shadows cast by the second level.

She was limping, holding a knife in her free hand.

“I need to get to her,” Brekt said. “I need to get to Liv.”

“She can handle it.” I met his wide stare. “She has the magic. We need to put these assholes down.”

“Any last words, Guards?” Falizha asked.

“Stop putting on a fucking show,” Aeden spat at her. “Or I’ll put you on your knees with them.”

Her face went red, but she stayed quiet.

My chest rose and fell from the adrenaline. I waited for Aeden’s command and for those weapons to send metal flying through my chest.

But Aeden’s command never came.

The room went dark. Murmurs echoed in the chamber as shadows stretched over every blue-stained surface. Both Brekt and I looked up to find the light disappearing. It came back and faded again.

“Is the fucking sun flickering on and off?” Aeden asked.

Falizha’s answer made me go cold. “Rem is in the prayer chamber with the Ikhor. We are to continue here.”

“And so we shall,” Aeden replied.

The Ravins were proven wrong, however—Rem wasn’t taking the light from the shrine. Just then, the door behind me burst open, crashing against the stone wall and splintering.

An agonized cry tore through the room—the sound was out of my worst nightmares. Everyone turned for the door to the prayer chamber, eyes wide with fear.

A shape moved in the shadows cast by the balcony. The sounds of feet being dragged echoed, and when the figure entered the light cast down from the fading sun, I heard someone scream.

The embodiment of evil prowled from the doorway, carrying darkness with every step. It wasn’t my old friend who walked from the prayer chamber. No, this was the Ikhor—as terrifying as every image painted in Veydes.

Every horrid thing I’d said to her. Every moment I wasted with anger. I wished to take it all back. Apologies would be too late now. She was … Liv was gone.

The air left my lungs, and I turned to Brekt, who had paled from the horror stalking toward us. He, too, understood what he was seeing.

The Ikhor’s skin glowed through its leather outfit. Black surrounded its enraged red eyes, and its lips pulled back in a snarl. This was the evil destined to rise. I had been wrong, thinking Liv could protect herself with her magic. She’d lost against it.

It dragged its feet as if fighting itself to move forward.

It was the creepiest fucking thing I’d ever seen.

The room continued to darken as if its magic ate up all the light.

Its shoulders hunched, hands twitching as it grabbed its hair, pulling it, shaking its head.

Another scream tore from its mouth, and the voice was both low and high.

“Guardians!” Aeden shouted. “New target!”

His command triggered the Ikhor’s awareness. Its glowing, red gaze sliced across the room, and it stopped, colliding with mine. Pure blackness surrounding the iris—like a god’s. Its head swivelled to face Brekt, and when it saw him, it choked itself. “No. No. No,” it’s many voices said as one.

“Fight it, Liv!” Brekt called out. He, too, was fighting the beast within. His skin turned to dust, replaced with black scales. Horns appeared on his head, and his eyes glowed a bright yellow, as if the presence of the Ikhor was making him shift.

“What do I do, Brekt?” I asked. The Guardians were no longer watching us. “What do I do?”

“I don’t fucking know,” he growled. “But whatever it is, she must be saved. Don’t forget what you promised me.”

Of all the promises I’d ever made in my lifetime, that one would cost me the most.

A dozen Guardians joined the Ravins behind us, having left their post on the second floor. “Which target?” an older male Sea-leg asked.

“We will let the Aspis deal with the Ikhor,” Aeden replied.

“He won’t. She’s his lover,” another said.

“Then we will make him.”

“He’s no longer the beast. He’s just a man!”

Aeden appraised Brekt before he slid his gaze my way. “I think I know how to make the beast come forth.”

I jumped at the loud boom of Aeden’s weapon going off. Fear gripped my chest—I couldn’t watch Brekt die a second time.

The pain in my chest intensified, feeling like a rib had cracked.

“Nuo!” the Ikhor shouted in its double voice.

I lowered my chin, seeing moisture leaving the side of my chest. It wasn’t just fear causing the pain … I had been shot.

“Fuck,” I coughed. “That hurts.” I met the glowing, hateful eyes of the Ikhor over my shoulder. “Kill the bastards,” I moaned before I collapsed on the ground, landing in the rippling blue light of the temple—just like Brekt had seen.

“Sorry, man,” I struggled to say to my brother, who was screaming next to me, fading to the beast. “I guess your dream was right.”