Prince Lucian had been buried alive for thirty-nine years, and the first person he wanted to kill was Morvus.
"You didn't kill me," Lucian said. "You buried me with Azrath."
Morvus retreated from the open third gate.
Only one step.
But Gareth saw it.
So did Toby.
The ancient creature who had manipulated kings, engineered the Great Courtyard Massacre, and shaped Cael's childhood was afraid.
"Lucian," Morvus whispered.
The gray-haired prince smiled.
"You remember my name."
"How are you alive?"
"Disappointed?"
"I watched you die."
"No. You watched me fall."
Lucian raised the broken chain hanging from his wrist.
"And then you were too frightened to follow."
Black smoke gathered around Morvus.
Gareth immediately moved between him and the twins.
Lucian noticed.
His gaze settled on Gareth.
"My son."
Gareth's expression remained hard.
"Don't call me that."
Pain crossed Lucian's face.
"Fair."
"You don't know me."
"No."
"You weren't there."
"I know."
"You don't get to walk out of a hole after thirty-nine years and become my father."
"I know."
The lack of argument disarmed Gareth more effectively than any defense.
Lucian looked at Toby and Cael.
"But those are my grandsons."
Cael folded his arms.
"Apparently."
Toby glanced at him.
Cael shrugged.
"Today has been complicated."
Lucian almost laughed.
Then his eyes fell on their crests.
His amusement vanished.
"Twins."
"Yes," Gareth said.
"Both marked?"
"Yes."
Lucian closed his eyes.
"Then he succeeded."
Gareth looked toward Morvus.
"What did he succeed at?"
Lucian opened his eyes.
"Recreating Azrath's original bloodline."
Morvus smiled.
"Recreating is such an inelegant word."
Lucian's hand tightened.
"You bred human beings like animals."
"I guided history."
"You murdered anyone who interfered."
"I removed obstacles."
Lucian suddenly crossed the chamber.
Fast.
Faster than a man his apparent age should have been capable of moving.
His fist struck Morvus's face.
The Regent flew backward.
Black smoke exploded from his body.
Lucian followed.
Morvus transformed midair.
His face became another man's.
Then another.
An ancient king.
A priest.
A soldier.
A woman.
A child.
Lucian seized him by the throat.
"Which face should I break first?"
Morvus smiled through the face of a dead king.
"Still angry."
"You chained me beside a creature whose dreams can shatter minds."
"And yet you survived."
"Because Azrath kept me alive."
That stopped everyone.
Toby stepped forward.
"Azrath saved you?"
Lucian released Morvus.
The Shade-backed Regent retreated into darkness.
Lucian looked at Toby.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because he knew someday you would come."
Cael's eyes narrowed.
"He knew about us thirty-nine years ago?"
"No."
Lucian shook his head.
"He knew his blood would eventually reunite."
"Why?"
"Because he has been waiting three thousand years for someone capable of making the choice he was denied."
Toby remembered the vision.
They will choose whether he deserves to die.
"What choice?"
Lucian looked toward the third gate.
"Whether to kill him."
"Or free him?"
"Those aren't the only options."
Cael stepped closer.
"What is the third?"
Lucian hesitated.
Morvus laughed from the shadows.
"Tell them."
Lucian ignored him.
"Tell them what happens if they refuse both choices."
"Enough."
Morvus's smile widened.
"They deserve to know."
Gareth raised his sword toward Morvus.
"You've contributed enough."
But Toby looked at Lucian.
"What happens?"
Lucian sighed.
"You replace him."
Silence.
Toby frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"The prison requires an anchor."
Lucian pointed beneath them.
"For three thousand years, Azrath has been that anchor."
Cael understood.
"If he dies..."
"Someone must take his place."
"Why?"
"Because the prison isn't holding only him."
The chamber became quiet.
Gareth remembered the Shades.
"What's beneath Azrath?"
Lucian looked toward the floor.
"Not beneath."
He looked around them.
"Beyond."
Toby felt cold.
"Beyond what?"
"The Veil."
Ysara whispered, "That's a myth."
"No."
Lucian's expression darkened.
"Azrath isn't the prisoner."
"Then what is he?" Toby asked.
"The door."
---
Morvus began clapping.
"Excellent."
Lucian turned.
"You always loved dramatic revelations."
"And you always ruined them."
Morvus stepped back into the light.
"The Veil separates this world from something older."
Toby stared.
"The Shades?"
"Only fragments."
"Of what?"
Morvus smiled.
"Things without bodies."
Cael looked toward the black smoke surrounding him.
"Like whatever is inside you."
Morvus touched his chest.
"Precisely."
Lucian said, "Three thousand years ago, the first king discovered the Veil."
"And Azrath?"
"Tried to close it."
Morvus corrected him.
"Tried to control it."
"You're lying."
"I was there."
Lucian's expression hardened.
"So was Azrath."
Gareth looked between them.
"Then perhaps we should ask him."
Everyone fell silent.
Lucian stared at Gareth.
"You sound exactly like your mother."
Gareth froze.
"My mother?"
Lucian's expression softened.
"Elena."
Not Queen Maeryn.
Not a royal woman.
"Who was she?"
"A healer."
"Is she alive?"
Lucian's silence answered.
Gareth looked away.
Lucian continued quietly.
"She died protecting you."
"From Morvus?"
"No."
"From whom?"
Lucian looked toward the third gate.
"Me."
Gareth stared.
"What?"
"I was changing."
Lucian lifted his sleeve.
Black veins covered his forearm beneath the golden crest.
"I had spent too long near Azrath."
Toby approached.
"You're infected?"
"Connected."
"Like Morvus?"
"No."
Morvus laughed.
"Not yet."
Lucian ignored him.
"Azrath's dreams enter anyone who remains below long enough. Eventually you stop knowing which thoughts belong to you."
Gareth's expression hardened.
"And my mother?"
"She realized I was becoming dangerous."
"What happened?"
"I tried to take you below."
"Why?"
"I believed you could free Azrath."
Gareth went still.
"You tried to use me."
"Yes."
The admission came without defense.
"Elena stopped me."
"How?"
"She stabbed me."
Cael muttered, "I think I would have liked her."
Lucian almost smiled.
"Most people did."
Gareth's voice became cold.
"And then?"
"She took you to Queen Maeryn."
"The vision."
"Maeryn hid you with the blacksmith."
"And you?"
"I returned below."
"Why?"
"Because I realized Elena was right."
Lucian looked at Toby and Cael.
"I was becoming the thing I wanted to destroy."
---
A crash echoed from the upper passage.
Gareth raised his sword.
Veyron appeared.
Mira was beside him.
She carried a small glass vial.
"The antidote."
Toby rushed toward them.
Mira knelt beside Ysara.
"Drink."
Ysara swallowed the white thorn extract.
Within seconds, the black veins stopped spreading.
Toby exhaled.
Mira looked at him.
"I said I'd come back."
"You did."
A small piece of trust returned between them.
Then Veyron saw Lucian.
His face went blank.
"Your Highness?"
Lucian smiled.
"Captain."
Veyron immediately knelt.
Gareth frowned.
"You know him?"
Veyron looked up.
"Everyone in the Lantern Order knows Prince Lucian."
Silence.
Ysara slowly rose.
"You're Lantern?"
Veyron nodded.
Gareth almost threw his sword away from exhaustion.
"Of course you are."
Toby looked confused.
"The extinct order?"
Veyron gave him a tired smile.
"We've been having an unusually active day."
"Why did the Lantern Order hide Lucian's existence?"
"Because our purpose was to prevent Morvus from discovering he survived."
Morvus laughed.
"Poorly done."
Veyron ignored him.
Then Lucian noticed the symbol on Veyron's armor.
His expression changed.
"Who leads the Order now?"
Veyron hesitated.
"Brother Caldus did."
Toby remembered the old priest dying in the southern tower.
"He's dead."
Lucian closed his eyes.
"Then who?"
Veyron looked at Gareth.
"Seraphine."
Everyone froze.
Gareth stared.
"Seraphine leads the Lantern Order?"
"She has for ten years."
"From behind that door?"
"Through messages."
"How?"
Veyron looked toward Toby and Cael.
"The same way she contacted Gareth through the nursery wall."
Toby remembered the glowing message supposedly written by Queen Elara.
"That was Seraphine?"
"Some of it."
"Some?"
Veyron's face tightened.
"We stopped receiving reliable messages three years ago."
Gareth felt cold.
"What happened three years ago?"
"We began receiving two sets."
"One from Seraphine."
"And one from something pretending to be her."
The false queen.
The voices behind the black door.
Morvus.
Layers of manipulation overlapping until nobody knew which message came from whom.
Toby asked, "How did you tell them apart?"
"We couldn't."
Cael laughed bitterly.
"So everyone was following instructions from someone who might have been our mother, Morvus, or a monster."
"Yes."
"Wonderful."
---
The third gate groaned.
Lucian turned.
"We're out of time."
"For what?" Gareth asked.
"The third gate is open, but the final descent remains sealed."
He pointed toward the staircase.
"Azrath is below."
Toby looked into the darkness.
He could feel something there.
Not hunger.
Not anger.
Pain.
Ancient and endless.
Cael felt it too.
"He's calling us."
Lucian nodded.
Morvus stepped toward the staircase.
"And now we finish."
Gareth blocked him.
"You go nowhere."
Morvus smiled.
"You cannot stop me."
"Perhaps not."
Lucian joined Gareth.
"But we can."
Edric stepped beside them.
Then Thane.
Veyron.
Ysara.
Cael looked at Toby.
"For once, the adults seem useful."
Toby smiled faintly.
Morvus watched the line forming against him.
Then he laughed.
"Do you really think I came alone?"
The bodies scattered throughout the chamber began moving.
Dead soldiers.
Dead inquisitors.
Men who had fallen when the second gate opened.
One by one, they stood.
Black eyes opened.
Shades.
Dozens.
"Protect the twins!" Gareth shouted.
Battle erupted.
---
Toby and Cael ran toward the staircase.
Gareth fought behind them.
Lucian's golden crest blazed as he struck Shades with his bare hands, burning black smoke from their stolen bodies.
Edric fought beside Thane.
Veyron guarded Ysara and Mira.
Morvus moved through the chaos untouched.
Cael saw him.
"He's going below!"
Toby followed.
They descended.
The stairs spiraled deep beneath High Keep.
The roar of battle faded.
Soon only their footsteps remained.
"Should we wait for Gareth?" Toby asked.
"If Morvus reaches Azrath first, waiting won't matter."
They continued.
At the bottom stood a final chamber.
No gold.
No carvings.
No throne.
Only darkness.
And chains.
Hundreds of enormous chains disappeared into the shadows.
At the center sat a man.
Not a dragon.
A man.
Bare-chested.
Long white hair reached the floor.
Black metal pierced his arms, legs, and chest.
His eyes were closed.
Toby whispered, "Azrath?"
The man's eyes opened.
Gold.
Exactly like their crests.
Cael raised Kingsbane.
Azrath looked at it.
Then at the twins.
Tears filled his eyes.
"My children."
Toby stepped closer.
"We're not your children."
"No."
Azrath smiled sadly.
"But you carry them."
Cael frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Their memories."
Azrath lifted one chained hand.
Both twins' crests ignited.
Images flooded them.
Two infants.
Growing older.
Running through fields.
Their descendants.
Generation after generation.
Memories carried through blood.
Toby staggered.
Cael caught him.
Azrath whispered, "At last."
"Why did you call us here?" Toby asked.
"To end this."
"Kill you?"
"If you choose."
"Free you?"
"If you choose."
Cael stepped forward.
"And the third option?"
Azrath's sadness deepened.
"One of you takes my place."
"No," Toby said.
Azrath looked at him.
"Then choose between death and freedom."
Cael raised Kingsbane.
"What happens if we free you?"
"I close the Veil."
"Can you?"
"Yes."
"Then why haven't you?"
Azrath looked toward the chains.
"Because these do not imprison my body."
"They imprison your will."
A voice answered from behind them.
Morvus.
The twins turned.
He stood at the entrance.
Alone.
Smiling.
"Don't listen to him."
Azrath's expression changed.
Hatred.
Not fear.
"You."
Morvus bowed.
"Old friend."
Cael raised Kingsbane.
Morvus did not care.
"Toby. Cael. Before you make your choice, perhaps you should ask Azrath one question."
Toby stared at him.
"What?"
Morvus smiled.
"Ask him what happened to his original twins."
Azrath closed his eyes.
Cael turned toward him.
"What happened?"
No answer.
"Azrath."
Silence.
Toby felt something terrible approaching.
"What happened to your children?"
Azrath finally opened his eyes.
"I killed them."
Neither boy moved.
Morvus smiled.
"Now ask him why."
Cael's voice hardened.
"Why?"
Azrath looked directly at the twins.
"Because they opened the Veil."
Silence.
Then he whispered:
"And you are about to do the same."