The black door moved outward.
Only an inch.
That was enough to make Crown Prince Edric scream.
"Get the twins away from it!"
Gareth seized Toby around the waist as Thane grabbed Cael.
Both boys resisted.
"Mother!" Toby shouted.
"That's not your mother!" Edric roared.
Another crack split the stone.
Golden light poured through it, but the light was wrong.
Toby's Sovereign Crest usually burned amber-gold, warm as flame.
This was pale.
Almost white.
And within it moved thin threads of darkness.
The voice came again.
"Bring me my sons."
Cael stopped fighting Thane.
His expression changed.
"That's not Seraphine."
Gareth looked at him.
"How do you know?"
Cael stared at the door.
"Because it wants both of us."
The black stone shuddered.
Then something struck it from the other side.
BOOM.
Mira screamed.
BOOM.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Ysara struggled upright.
"We need to reseal it."
"How?" Gareth demanded.
Edric pointed toward the carved handprints.
"The same way it was sealed."
Toby looked at them.
"Two hands."
"Yes."
"Whose?"
Edric hesitated.
That hesitation was answer enough.
Toby whispered, "Ours."
"No," Gareth said.
Edric faced him.
"The seal was designed for Vaelor blood."
"They're not touching that door."
"If it opens, none of us leave this chamber."
Gareth raised his sword.
"Find another way."
"There isn't one."
Cael pulled free from Thane.
"He's right."
Gareth turned.
"You don't know that."
"I can feel it."
Cael touched his chest.
"The thing behind there is pulling at me."
Toby nodded slowly.
"Me too."
Gareth looked at him.
"Since when?"
"Since we entered the chamber."
"And you said nothing?"
"There have been a lot of things happening."
Another impact shook the door.
The crack widened.
A hand appeared through it.
Human.
Female.
Pale fingers curled around the edge of the stone.
Gareth froze.
A ring gleamed on one finger.
He knew that ring.
The matching ring was inside the archive they had lost at the stream.
The Vale crest.
"Seraphine..."
The hand reached farther.
"Gareth."
This time the voice was hers.
Not hundreds of voices.
One.
Weak.
Terrified.
"Help me."
Gareth stepped forward.
Edric blocked him.
"Don't."
"That's her ring."
"The thing wearing my mother's face knew her memories."
"Move."
"It wants you to believe."
Seraphine screamed behind the door.
"Gareth!"
He shoved Edric aside.
Toby grabbed his arm.
"Wait."
Gareth looked down.
Toby's eyes remained fixed on the pale hand.
"If that's my mother, ask her something."
"What?"
"Something the thing couldn't know."
Edric shook his head.
"It steals memories."
"Then ask something she never told anyone."
Gareth stared at the hand.
A memory came.
Fifteen years earlier.
A summer night on the eastern wall.
Seraphine laughing beneath the stars.
Something stupid.
Private.
Meaningless to anyone else.
He approached the crack.
"Seraphine."
The hand stopped moving.
"What did you steal from me the first night we kissed?"
Silence.
Then the woman behind the door laughed softly.
Despite everything, Gareth's heart stopped.
"My left glove."
His eyes widened.
"And where did you hide it?"
"In King Aldren's council chamber."
"Where?"
"Inside the bronze wolf's mouth."
Gareth lowered his sword.
Only Seraphine could know.
Then she added:
"You spent three days accusing stable boys."
Gareth almost smiled.
"That was you."
"Yes."
Edric stared at him.
"Is it her?"
Gareth nodded.
"Yes."
He reached toward the hand.
Ysara shouted, "Gareth, no!"
Too late.
Their fingers touched.
The chamber disappeared.
---
Gareth stood in High Keep.
But not as it existed now.
Fire covered the walls.
Bodies filled the courtyard.
The massacre.
He looked down.
His armor was covered in blood.
A newborn baby screamed in his arms.
Cael.
Seraphine stood before him.
Younger.
Terrified.
"Take him!"
"What about the other child?"
"Ysara has him."
"I can take both."
"No!"
Seraphine grabbed his armor.
"They cannot remain together."
"Why?"
"Because Elara knows."
"Knows what?"
Seraphine looked toward the burning palace.
"That the prophecy was mistranslated."
Gareth froze.
"What prophecy?"
"The Twin Flame."
She pressed baby Cael against his chest.
"It doesn't say the twins will destroy Azrath."
"What does it say?"
Seraphine began crying.
"They will choose whether he deserves to die."
The vision shifted.
Gareth saw Queen Elara standing over two cradles.
She was arguing with Seraphine.
"One must die," Elara said.
"No."
"If both live, Azrath will speak through them."
"Then teach them to resist him."
"They are infants!"
"They are my sons!"
Elara slapped her.
Seraphine did not move.
The queen whispered:
"If the kingdom must choose between two children and ten million souls, there is no choice."
"There is always a choice."
"Then choose one."
Seraphine stared at the two infants.
She could not.
The vision changed again.
A secret chamber.
Seraphine speaking with Edric.
"Your mother will kill them."
"I won't allow it."
"You can't stop her."
"I can remove her authority."
"How?"
Edric looked toward a map of High Keep.
"We create chaos."
Seraphine stared at him.
"What are you suggesting?"
"A false attack."
"No."
"Enough confusion to get the children out."
"People could die."
"Not if we control it."
The vision fractured.
Fire.
Screaming.
Soldiers attacking soldiers.
The false attack becoming real.
The Great Courtyard Massacre.
Gareth understood.
Edric had not planned a massacre.
He had planned a distraction.
Someone had transformed it into slaughter.
The vision shifted once more.
Seraphine stood in a dark corridor.
Queen Elara approached.
No guards.
No crown.
Only a mother facing another mother.
"The children are gone," Seraphine said.
Elara closed her eyes.
"Then we have failed."
"No. We saved them."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain."
Elara looked toward the floor.
Toward whatever slept beneath High Keep.
"Azrath isn't trying to escape."
Seraphine frowned.
"What?"
"He is trying to die."
Silence.
"The sacrifices don't keep him asleep," Elara continued. "They keep him alive."
Seraphine's face changed.
"Why?"
"Because our ancestors needed his power."
The truth struck like a blade.
The royal pact had never protected the kingdom from Azrath.
It had protected the kingdom's access to him.
Elara whispered:
"Every sovereign for three hundred years has drawn power from the creature beneath this castle."
"Then the prisoners—"
"Feed him."
Seraphine stepped backward in horror.
"And the Vaelor blood?"
"Controls him."
Seraphine looked toward where her sons had disappeared.
"My children..."
"Can end the pact."
"By killing him?"
Elara shook her head.
"By freeing him."
The vision shattered.
---
Gareth woke on the floor.
Toby was kneeling beside him.
"Father?"
The word struck Gareth almost as hard as the vision.
"What happened?" Toby asked.
Gareth sat up.
The door remained cracked.
Seraphine's hand had disappeared.
Edric stared at him.
"What did you see?"
Gareth looked at him.
"You planned the massacre."
Thane drew a breath.
Edric closed his eyes.
"I planned a diversion."
"Your diversion killed hundreds."
"Someone betrayed us."
"Who?"
"I never discovered it."
Gareth rose.
"Your mother knew the truth."
Edric's expression sharpened.
"What truth?"
"The sacrifices don't imprison Azrath."
Ysara went still.
"They feed him."
Cael laughed once.
A terrible, empty sound.
"So I was right."
"Not entirely."
Gareth looked at both twins.
"The pact keeps Azrath alive because the royal bloodline has been using his power."
Toby frowned.
"For what?"
Veyron answered from behind them.
"The throne."
Everyone turned.
The captain had been unusually silent.
Too silent.
"The Sovereign Crown isn't symbolic," he said. "Every crowned ruler draws strength from Azrath."
Edric stared at him.
"You knew?"
Veyron nodded.
"How?"
"Because that's why Elara asked me to kill her."
The chamber went silent.
"She believed her death would break the royal connection."
"Did it?"
"No."
"Why?"
Veyron looked at Edric.
"Because you were alive."
Edric understood.
"As heir."
"The pact transferred to you."
Edric's face drained.
"That's why I could hear him."
"Yes."
Cael approached.
"If Azrath wants to die, why are we trying to stop the gates opening?"
Veyron looked toward the black door.
"Because something else wants his body."
Silence.
Toby remembered the false queen.
"Not yet," he whispered.
Gareth looked at him.
"What?"
"The Shade. When Cael asked if it was Azrath, it said, 'Not yet.'"
Ysara's silver eye widened.
"It wants to become him."
Veyron nodded.
"The prison isn't only keeping Azrath inside."
"It's keeping the Shades out," Toby said.
Another impact struck the black door.
BOOM.
The crack widened.
This time Seraphine screamed.
"Please!"
Gareth approached.
"We have to get her out."
Edric blocked him again.
"You saw her memories. That doesn't prove the body behind there is still hers."
"Then what happened to her?"
Edric's face tightened.
"Ten years ago, Seraphine entered that chamber voluntarily."
"Why?"
"To stop the Shades."
"How?"
Edric looked at the twins.
"By becoming the lock."
Toby whispered, "She's been holding them back for ten years?"
"Yes."
Cael stared at the door.
"Alone?"
"Yes."
Something in Cael broke.
All the anger he had carried toward the mother who supposedly abandoned him suddenly had nowhere to go.
He approached the door.
"Mother."
A sob came from the other side.
"Cael?"
He pressed his forehead against the stone.
"You came back for me."
Silence.
Then:
"I never stopped looking."
Cael closed his eyes.
Toby joined him.
The brothers stood before the two carved handprints.
Gareth realized what they intended.
"No."
Toby turned.
"We can reseal it."
"You don't know what touching those marks will do."
"Neither does anyone."
"Exactly."
Cael placed his right hand against one carved print.
Nothing happened.
Toby looked at Gareth.
"If we don't do this, she dies."
Gareth's jaw tightened.
Toby placed his left hand against the second print.
The chamber erupted in light.
Both boys screamed.
Gareth lunged forward.
Edric caught him.
"Wait!"
Golden lines raced across the black door.
The crack began closing.
Behind it, Seraphine cried out.
"Stop!"
Toby opened his eyes.
"Mother?"
"STOP!"
The crack reversed.
It widened.
Cael tried pulling his hand away.
He couldn't.
"Something's holding me!"
Toby screamed.
"Me too!"
Gareth drew his sword and struck the stone.
The blade shattered.
The door opened another foot.
A woman became visible beyond it.
Seraphine.
Older.
Emaciated.
Alive.
Chains covered her body.
Gareth stared at her.
"Seraphine."
She looked at him.
Tears filled her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
Her gaze shifted toward the twins.
"I wasn't the lock."
Something moved behind her.
Huge.
Human-shaped.
Made entirely of black smoke.
Seraphine began sobbing.
"I was the bait."
The shadow placed both hands on her shoulders.
Toby and Cael screamed as their crests turned from gold to black.
Seraphine shouted:
"LET GO OF THE DOOR!"
"We can't!" Toby cried.
The shadow leaned forward.
Two burning eyes appeared in the darkness.
Edric whispered, "What is that?"
Seraphine looked directly at Gareth.
"The one who betrayed us."
Gareth froze.
"What?"
"The one who turned Edric's diversion into the massacre."
The shadow stepped into the light.
Smoke peeled away.
A human face appeared beneath it.
Gareth recognized him.
So did Edric.
So did Thane.
But Toby recognized him for a different reason.
He had seen that face earlier that morning in the courtyard.
Lord Regent Morvus smiled from behind Seraphine.
Only he looked no older than he had ten years ago.
And around his neck hung the third silver key.
"Hello, Gareth."
Morvus tightened his grip on Seraphine's shoulders.
"You've finally brought me both boys."