Queen Elara's face split open.
Not like flesh beneath a blade.
Like a mask being torn from the inside.
Black smoke poured between her teeth as her jaw stretched far beyond anything human. The skin along her cheeks cracked into thin glowing lines, and something dark moved behind her eyes.
"DOWN!" Edric shouted.
Gareth threw himself over Toby.
A blast of black fire crossed the chapel.
The stone wall behind them exploded.
Screams filled the chamber.
Thane's soldiers scattered while Veyron overturned a heavy wooden table and dragged two wounded men behind it.
Cael did not retreat.
He stared at the thing wearing Elara's face.
His Sovereign Crest burned brilliantly.
"Cael!" Toby shouted.
The creature turned toward him.
For one instant, its monstrous mouth closed.
Queen Elara's beautiful face returned.
"My child."
Cael froze.
Edric charged.
His sword entered the creature's chest.
The false queen looked down.
Then smiled.
"Hello, son."
She struck Edric with one hand.
He flew across the chapel and crashed into a pillar.
"Edric!" Thane ran toward him.
The creature pulled the sword from its body.
There was no blood.
Only smoke.
Ysara whispered, "A Shade."
Veyron heard her.
"No Shade can wear a dead person's memories."
"This one can."
The false Elara turned toward Ysara.
"Silver Eye."
Ysara went pale.
"You remember me?"
"I remember everything she remembered."
The creature touched Elara's stolen face.
"Her love."
Its eyes shifted toward Edric.
"Her guilt."
Then Toby.
"And her fear."
Toby felt Gareth's hand tighten around his shoulder.
"What are you?" he asked.
The creature smiled.
"Something your ancestors created."
Cael raised his knife.
"Azrath?"
The smile widened.
"Not yet."
The chapel floor shook.
Beneath them, the newly opened second gate radiated golden light.
The creature looked downward.
"But soon."
Cael suddenly understood.
"You wanted me to open the gates."
"Yes."
"You manipulated the Brotherhood."
"Yes."
"The message. The Kingsbane fragment."
"All necessary."
Cael's face twisted with fury.
"You used me."
The false queen tilted her head.
"Everyone uses children, Cael."
That sentence struck him harder than any weapon.
Toby saw it.
So did Gareth.
Cael attacked.
"No!" Ysara screamed.
Too late.
His blade crossed the creature's throat.
The false Elara caught his wrist.
Their glowing marks flared simultaneously.
Cael screamed.
The creature's smile vanished.
For the first time, it looked surprised.
"You carry more of him than I expected."
Black veins raced from its fingers toward Cael's arm.
Toby acted without thinking.
He grabbed his brother's free hand.
Golden light exploded from both twins.
The creature shrieked.
Not with one voice.
With hundreds.
Gareth dragged the boys backward.
The false queen stumbled.
A section of her face dissolved into smoke.
Underneath was nothing.
No skull.
No muscle.
Only darkness.
Edric had recovered.
"Into the gate!" he shouted.
"What?" Gareth yelled.
"The second chamber! It can't follow!"
"Why?"
"Because it has no blood!"
That was enough.
Veyron rallied the survivors.
"Move!"
One by one they descended through the broken chapel floor.
Thane supported Edric.
Gareth carried the weakened Ysara.
Mira stayed beside Toby.
Cael came last.
The Shade watched them from above.
It did not pursue.
That frightened Toby.
Before he descended, it spoke.
"Tobias."
He stopped.
Gareth shouted from below.
"Don't listen!"
But Toby looked back.
The false queen's face had almost repaired itself.
"Ask Gareth why your mother chose one twin over the other."
Toby's stomach tightened.
Cael heard it too.
The creature smiled.
"Ask him which child Seraphine wanted to keep."
Then the stone gate slammed shut.
---
The chamber beyond was enormous.
Ancient pillars rose into darkness. Golden symbols covered the walls, pulsing like slow heartbeats.
At the center floated the second fragment of Kingsbane.
Cael stared at it.
Nobody approached.
"Don't touch it," Edric said.
Cael laughed bitterly.
"Now everyone gives me that advice."
Edric lowered himself against a pillar.
Ten years had changed him.
Gareth remembered a proud young prince with clean black hair, expensive armor, and the irritating confidence of someone born knowing an entire kingdom would one day belong to him.
The man before them was gaunt.
Scarred.
Exhausted.
But unmistakably Edric.
Gareth approached.
"You owe me ten years of explanations."
Edric looked at him.
"And you owe me a punch."
Gareth hit him.
Hard.
Edric's head snapped sideways.
Thane reached for his sword.
Edric raised one hand.
"No. I deserved that."
Gareth grabbed his collar.
"One punch doesn't cover ten years."
"I know."
"You let everyone believe you were dead."
"Yes."
"You let Morvus rule."
"Yes."
"You let men murder each other over your throne."
Edric met his eyes.
"The throne stopped mattering the night I learned what was beneath it."
Gareth released him.
Toby approached cautiously.
Edric looked at the boy.
Then at Cael.
Something complicated passed through his face.
"So Seraphine succeeded."
Cael folded his arms.
"Apparently."
Toby asked, "Did you know our mother?"
Edric laughed softly.
"She was my closest friend."
"People thought she was your lover."
"We wanted them to."
Gareth's jaw tightened.
Edric noticed.
"She loved you, Gareth."
"She had an unusual way of showing it."
"She was protecting you."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because it's true."
Cael interrupted.
"Which twin did she want?"
Silence.
The Shade's words had followed them through the gate.
Edric's face changed.
Toby noticed immediately.
"You know."
Edric looked toward Ysara.
She avoided his eyes.
Toby's chest tightened.
"Which one?"
Gareth stepped forward.
"This is exactly what that creature wanted."
"That doesn't make the question false."
"Toby—"
"Which child did my mother want to keep?"
Edric sighed.
"You."
Cael did not move.
But something in his expression closed.
Toby looked at him.
"No."
Edric continued.
"Seraphine knew the twins had to be separated. She asked Ysara to take Tobias."
"And me?" Cael asked.
Edric looked at Gareth.
"She asked Gareth to take you."
Cael laughed once.
"So she kept him safe with someone she trusted and gave me to a wounded soldier being hunted by half the kingdom."
"She trusted Gareth more than anyone alive."
"That worked wonderfully."
Gareth accepted the accusation.
Cael turned away.
Toby approached him.
"Cael."
"Don't."
"She didn't abandon you."
"You don't know that."
"Neither do you."
Cael spun around.
"You had Mara. You had Mira. You grew up hungry, yes, but nobody carved prayers into your skin."
Toby said nothing.
Cael pulled open his shirt.
The scars seemed darker in the golden light.
"I learned to sleep chained to stone."
His voice shook.
"I learned not to scream because screaming made them continue."
Toby stared at him.
"I didn't know."
"Exactly."
Cael looked toward Edric.
"And now everyone wants me to believe our mother loved us equally."
Edric spoke quietly.
"She did."
"You weren't there."
"I was."
Cael froze.
"What?"
Edric looked at Gareth.
"There's another thing you don't remember."
Gareth's expression hardened.
"Apparently my memory is becoming public property."
"The night of the massacre, Seraphine didn't leave after giving you Cael."
Ysara whispered, "Edric..."
"No more secrets."
He looked at the twins.
"She went back."
Toby's eyes widened.
"Back where?"
"High Keep."
"Why?"
"To get Cael."
Cael stopped breathing.
Edric continued.
"She regretted separating you before Gareth even reached the aqueduct."
"Then why didn't she find me?"
"Because Elara stopped her."
Silence.
"My mother believed the twins together could awaken Azrath," Edric said. "She ordered Seraphine imprisoned."
Cael looked at Ysara.
"Did you know?"
"Not until later."
"What happened to her?"
Edric hesitated.
Toby stepped forward.
"Where is our mother?"
Edric looked toward the deepest end of the chamber.
There stood another door.
Smaller.
Black.
Unlike the golden second gate, it bore no royal symbols.
Only two handprints carved into the stone.
One left.
One right.
"The night I descended beneath High Keep," Edric said, "I found Seraphine."
Gareth's heart stopped.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Beyond that door."
Gareth moved immediately.
Edric blocked him.
"You cannot open it."
"Move."
"Gareth."
"Move."
"Listen to me."
Gareth drew his sword.
"I have listened to ten years of lies."
Edric did not retreat.
"Seraphine asked me to seal her inside."
That stopped him.
"Why?"
"Because she discovered what Azrath actually was."
Ysara whispered, "What did she discover?"
Edric looked toward the twins.
"That the prison wasn't built to keep Azrath from escaping."
Toby frowned.
"Then what was it built for?"
"To keep someone from reaching him."
"Who?"
Edric looked at the black door.
"Seraphine."
No one spoke.
Gareth lowered his sword.
"Why would she want to reach Azrath?"
"She didn't."
"Then why imprison her?"
"Because Azrath was calling her."
Cael touched the scars on his chest.
"Like he calls the Brotherhood."
"Stronger."
Edric looked at Toby.
"Vaelor blood doesn't merely guard Azrath."
"It belongs to him."
The golden symbols around the chamber pulsed faster.
Toby's crest responded.
Then Cael's.
Edric continued.
"Seraphine discovered that the Vaelor line wasn't descended from Azrath's jailers."
His voice lowered.
"They were descended from Azrath himself."
Toby stared at his arm.
"Then we're..."
"His blood."
A sound came from behind the black door.
Three knocks.
Everyone froze.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Gareth stepped toward it.
"Seraphine?"
Edric grabbed him.
"Don't."
Another knock.
Then a woman's voice.
Weak.
Muffled.
"Gareth?"
His face emptied.
He knew that voice.
Even after ten years.
Even through stone.
"Seraphine."
Toby and Cael stared at the door.
Their mother was on the other side.
"Gareth," the voice repeated.
He approached.
Edric seized his shoulder.
"Something is wrong."
Gareth pushed him away.
"She's alive."
"She shouldn't know you're here."
The room became silent.
Gareth stopped.
Edric was right.
Nobody had spoken Gareth's name near the door.
Then Seraphine said:
"Tobias?"
Toby stepped forward.
"Mother?"
Gareth caught him.
"Wait."
The voice broke into a sob.
"My baby."
Toby's eyes filled.
Cael remained perfectly still.
Then the woman behind the door spoke again.
"Cael?"
His face changed.
Every trace of anger disappeared.
For one heartbeat, he looked ten years old.
"Mother?"
"Both of you..."
She began crying.
"My boys."
Cael moved toward the door.
Toby followed.
Edric drew his sword.
"Stop."
The twins turned.
Edric's face had gone pale.
"Seraphine never called them Tobias and Cael."
Gareth frowned.
"What?"
"Those names were chosen after they were separated."
The knocking stopped.
Edric stared at the black door.
"At birth, Seraphine called them by different names."
Cael backed away.
The voice behind the door changed.
No longer crying.
No longer weak.
It laughed.
Deep beneath them, something enormous answered.
Then two hands pressed outward from the other side of the black stone.
The door bent.
Gareth raised his sword.
"What is behind there?"
Edric whispered:
"Until this moment, I thought it was Seraphine."
A crack appeared between the two carved handprints.
Golden light poured through.
And from the darkness beyond came Seraphine's voice one final time.
But now it spoke with the same hundred voices as the false queen.
"Bring me my sons."