Fortis held her gaze, savouring the moment. “The Spirefields.”

  Chapter 10

  The tenement building smelled of damp plaster and old timber. Blair moved through a narrow ground floor hallway, boots scraping against warped floorboards that creaked under her weight.

  The safehouse was a three-storey boarding house that had seen better days, but the walls were solid, the wards held, and it seemed that the shadow mages hadn’t reached this part of Nightreach yet.

  She paused at a cracked window overlooking the street. She knew Barnes was nearby, watching the intersection, and Sienna was on the opposite side of the building.

  The building had been empty when they’d arrived a few hours ago, abandoned like so much of the city. Reed and Denny had checked every room, every corner, searching for structural damage or lingering magical threats. The place was sound enough. Narrow hallways connected small rooms that once housed workers from the nearby factories. Now those rooms were packed with injured Praxis agents and whatever supplies they’d managed to salvage from the sanctum.

  She turned away from the window and continued down the hall. Small rooms branched off on either side. Through one doorway, she glimpsed Ellis sleeping on a narrow bed, her injured arm bound tight against her chest. Through another, Finley sat hunched over a collection of broken ward crystals, trying to salvage something useful from the wreckage.

  The building felt overcrowded and claustrophobic, but it was defensible. It was enough for now.

  Blair stopped at the third door on the left and knocked twice before pushing it open.

  Aldrick stood over a table covered in maps, his broad frame hunched as he studied the chaotic network of ley lines sprawling across Nightreach. His silver-streaked hair caught the light from the orb hovering near his shoulder. He looked up as she entered, and something in his expression made her pause.

  “You carry the weight of someone who has seen and suffered a great deal,” he said.

  Blair tensed. She’d spent the last few days keeping herself together through sheer will, refusing to let anyone see the cracks. “We all have.”

  “No.” Aldrick straightened, his dark eyes meeting hers. “Not like you.”

  She wanted to deflect again, to brush him off, but the words stuck in her throat. Theo’s face flashed through her mind. The way he’d looked at her in his final moments, screaming at her to run. Faith’s cries as the crystal consumed her. The empty space where they’d stood before the ritual turned them to dust.

  Blair sat in the chair across from Aldrick and said nothing.

  He didn’t push. He just turned his attention back to the maps. After a moment, he tapped one of the ley line intersections near the Spirefields. “The instability is concentrated here. Whatever happened during the merge, it tore the foundations of Nightreach’s magic apart, but there is a draw happening here.”

  Blair’s gaze locked on the location. The Spirefields. Where Rafe had found his ancestral home and where they’d recovered one of the Echo fragments.

  “That’s where one of the fragments was,” Blair said. “Rafe and Vesper found it in his family estate. The place had been sealed for centuries.”

  Aldrick looked up sharply. “His family estate?”

  “Yes. Rafe didn’t know about it until the wards recognised his blood.” Blair’s jaw tightened. “It turns out his ancestor was one of the seven mages who built Nightreach. The whole estate was folded within some kind of liminal space like the Fold.”

  Aldrick was quiet for a moment. He traced a finger along one of the ley line paths on the map, following its jagged route through the Spirefields.

  “Cormac told him the truth.” Blair hesitated, then added, “His parents died during a Covenant raid. They were eliminating Praxis agents while orchestrating the Arcana’s return. His mother sent him to you to keep him safe. Praxis wanted to recruit you, you know…that’s why she took a chance. She trusted you without even meeting you.”

  Aldrick turned away, staring at the maps.

  Blair watched him struggle with the weight of it. She understood that kind of guilt. The knowledge that someone had trusted you with something precious and you hadn’t even known the full extent of what you carried.

  “Rafe spoke about you sometimes,” she murmured. “He said you taught him everything he knows about protective magic. About wards and shielding. He said you were the one who helped him understand what he was capable of.”

  Aldrick’s shoulders tightened. “I did what I could.”

  “You kept him alive. That’s more than most people get.”

  He didn’t respond. Blair let the silence stretch, watching the lamplight flicker across the maps.

  Finally, Aldrick drew a breath and looked at her. “If we’re going to find Vesper, we need to find Rafe. He won’t stop searching. His core is depleted and he’ll burn himself out if we don’t reach him first.”

  “I know.” Blair rubbed her face. “But we don’t know where to start. The city’s a nightmare. The ley lines are broken. There’s no pattern to follow.”

  Aldrick’s gaze sharpened. He studied her with that same odd intensity from before, as if he were seeing something beneath her skin. “What happened to your magic?”

  Blair tensed. “What do you mean?”

  “I trained Vesper. I know what Resonant magic feels like.” He gestured towards her, though he didn’t touch her. “Yours is similar, but it’s wrong. Like an echo of an echo.”

  Blair’s hands curled into fists on her knees. She didn’t want to explain this. Didn’t want to relive the moment Tenebrae had manipulated her into that ritual. She’d wanted to become a Channeller, not a Resonant.

  “Tenebrae posed as the Nightweaver,” she said. Her voice came out flat. “He’d been operating in Nightreach for centuries, trading forbidden artefacts and playing the role of a mysterious broker. He was working with Praxis. They trusted him.”

  “But he wasn’t.”

  “No. He was an Arcana.” Blair’s magic pulsed beneath her skin, responding to the anger building in her chest. “He manipulated me. He said he could perform Theo’s ritual to make me a Channeller. I was human. I had no power to fight back.”

  Aldrick’s expression darkened. “What did the ritual actually do?”

  “It turned me into an Artificial Resonant.” The words tasted bitter. “Tenebrae needed a vessel that could hold the Echo fragments, so he made me into one. He planned to force all four pieces into me during another ritual, turning me into a weapon he could control.”

  “But Vesper stopped him.”

  “Yes. She took control of the ritual at the last moment and merged with the fragments herself.” Blair stared at her hands. The opalescent shimmer beneath her skin was faint but visible if she looked closely enough. “But I’m still this. Still whatever the hell he turned me into.”

  Aldrick was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was careful. “Have you tried to use it?”

  Blair frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Your Resonant nature. Have you tried to track Vesper through the ley lines?”

  “No. I’ve noticed the frequencies of things, but I’ve been too focused on keeping everyone alive.”

  “You should try.”

  Blair looked up at him. “Why?”

  “Because despite being artificial, your Resonant nature might allow you to sense Vesper in ways ordinary mages can’t.” Aldrick leaned against the table, arms crossed. “The link between Resonants and the Echo is fundamental. It’s woven into the magic itself, part of what makes them what they are. You might be the only person who can find her.”

  Blair stared at him. The idea hadn’t occurred to her. She’d been so focused on the fact that Tenebrae had violated her, twisted her magic into something unnatural, that she hadn’t considered it might actually be useful. That the thing he’d done to her could be turned against him.

  “How would I even do that?” she asked.

  “I can teach you.” Aldrick pulled another map from the pile and spread it across the table. This one showed the ley lines in more detail, each intersection marked with symbols Blair didn’t recognise. “The ley lines are broken, but they still carry echoes of the power that flows through them. If Vesper is anywhere in Nightreach, her presence will leave a mark. A disruption you might be able to sense.”

  “And if I can’t?”

  “Then we’re no worse off than we are now.” He met her gaze. “But it may be dangerous, given your artificial nature. Your magic is unpredictable.”

  “Everything’s dangerous now,” Blair muttered.

  “True enough.”

  Blair stood and paced to the window. The sky overhead was grey and overcast, normal clouds instead of the churning purple storm that hung over the ritual site. She thought about Vesper, trapped inside her own body with a divine consciousness taking control. She thought about Rafe, burning himself out searching for her with no way to track Tenebrae. She thought about Theo and Faith, crystallised and shattered into nothing because Praxis had trusted the wrong person.

  And she thought about the decision she’d made standing in the ruins of the sanctum, staring up at the fractured sky.

  “I want to find the Echo and bargain with her,” Blair said.

  Aldrick went very still. “What?”

  Blair turned to face him. “We need to free her from Tenebrae. Convince her not to destroy humanity. It’s the only way to stop this.”

  “Do you understand what you’re proposing?” Aldrick’s voice was careful, measured. “You want to negotiate with a divine being who could erase us with a thought.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s…bold.”

  “I know.” Blair crossed her arms. “But it’s our only chance. The Arcana are too powerful. We can’t fight them. We can’t kill them. The only thing we can do is try to convince the Echo that we’re worth saving.”

  “And if she disagrees?”

  “Then we’re already dead. We just don’t know it yet.” Blair moved back to the table and looked down at the maps. “If we can’t stop the Arcana, then everything ends. Not just Nightreach. Everything. If the Arcana control the Echo, they’ll reshape reality and turn the world into whatever twisted vision they have. If the Echo breaks free of them, then she’ll do whatever she wants anyway. I won’t let either scenario happen. Someone has to speak for humanity.”

  Aldrick studied her, weighing her words. She couldn’t tell if he thought she was desperate, determined, or simply broken beyond reason. Finally, he asked, “What does the rest of Praxis think of this plan?”

  “I haven’t told them yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because Praxis operates as a democracy now,” Blair said. “I won’t order anyone to follow me on a suicide mission. I’ll present the plan tomorrow and let them choose.”

  “And if they refuse?”

  Blair met his gaze. “Then I’ll go anyway. If I have to split from Praxis, I will.”

  Aldrick nodded slowly. He didn’t argue. He didn’t try to talk her out of it or tell her she was being reckless. He simply accepted her conviction, and Blair felt something loosen in her chest. She hadn’t realised how much she needed someone to believe her. To look at her impossible plan and not immediately call her a fool.

  “I’ll tell them tomorrow,” she said. “They need tonight to rest. They deserve that much.”

  “And if they agree?”

  “Then we find Vesper and the Echo…and we make her listen.” Blair turned back to the window. The sky over Nightreach was darkening as evening settled in. Somewhere out there, Rafe was still searching. Somewhere out there, Vesper was trapped with the soul of an Arcana trying to erase her…if it wasn’t already too late. “One way or another, this ends.”

  Aldrick didn’t respond.

  Blair left him to his maps and climbed the narrow staircase to the second floor.

  The building was quiet. Most of the agents were resting, conserving their strength for whatever came next. She moved down the hall, her footsteps muffled by the threadbare carpet runner. She passed Reed’s room, where he sat sharpening his blade by mage light. Passed Denny’s door, where quiet voices murmured behind the warped wood.

  She reached the small room at the end of the hall and knocked softly before pushing the door open.

  Edmund sat beside the bed, his hands glowing faintly as he monitored Cormac’s vitals. The older man lay still, his chest rising and falling in steady breaths.

  “Any change?” she asked, hoping the move had helped stir something.

  Edmund looked up. Exhaustion shadowed his face, but his eyes held something that might have been hope. “He’s been moving more. His eyes track movement in the room now. Watch.”

  As if responding to their voices, Cormac’s hand twitched against the blanket. His eyes shifted from the ceiling to focus on Blair’s face.

  Blair stepped closer, her breath catching. “Cormac?”

  His lips moved, but no sound came out. The effort seemed to cost him something. Edmund leaned forward, speaking his name again, but Cormac didn’t respond. His eyes remained fixed on Blair, watching her with an intensity that hadn’t been there before.

  “This is the most response we’ve seen,” Edmund murmured. “Whatever’s happening, he’s coming back. Slowly, but he’s coming back.”

  Blair nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak, to hope. They sorely needed some of his wisdom.

  Edmund stood and moved towards the door. “I need to check on the others. Ellis’s arm needs fresh bandages, and Finley’s been complaining about headaches. Call if anything changes.”

  “I will.”

  * * *

  The door closed behind him, leaving Blair alone with Cormac. She pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down.

  “We had to leave the sanctum,” she told him. “The tunnels were collapsing. The wards failed after the titan attack, and the structure wasn’t safe anymore. We’re in a boarding house now, across the Darkmese in the northwest. It’s not much, but it’s secure. Reed and Barnes have set up guard rotations. We’re as safe as we can be.”

  When she looked up, Cormac was still watching her. His hand had moved closer to the edge of the bed, as if reaching for something.

  “I’m going to find the Echo,” Blair went on. “I’m going to try to save what’s left of our world. It’s probably suicide. The others might refuse to come with me, but I have to try. You understand that, don’t you?”

  Cormac’s fingers curled again, the movement stronger this time. Blair didn’t know if he understood her, but the gesture felt like acknowledgment. Like he was telling her to go. To fight. To do whatever needed doing, no matter the cost.

  She reached out and covered his hand with hers. His skin was cool, but his fingers twitched beneath her palm. The contact felt fragile, like holding something that might shatter if she pressed too hard.

  “I’ll bring them home,” she whispered. “Rafe and Vesper. I’ll bring them home if I can.”

  Cormac’s eyes stayed locked on hers. Blair didn’t know what he saw when he looked at her, but she hoped it was someone worth believing in. Someone who could carry the weight of what came next without breaking.

  She sat with him until the light outside the window began to fade, the grey clouds swallowing what little daylight remained. The building settled around them, floorboards creaking as agents moved through the halls. Somewhere downstairs, voices murmured.

  Tomorrow she would tell them her plan. Tomorrow she would give them the choice to follow her into madness or walk away and try to survive on their own.

  She would find the Echo and somehow, she would make her listen.

  Chapter 11

  The eastern quarters of Nightreach had become a maze of broken streets and collapsed buildings. Rafe walked through the wreckage, each step requiring more effort than the last. He hardly recognised the city anymore. Streets he’d walked before had become unrecognisable, but he barely noticed.

  There was a hollow ache in his chest that wouldn’t fade…the part of him that yearned for Vesper.

  He paused at a corner, one hand pressed against a wall for balance. The stone was warm under his palm, humming with residual magic. The entire city felt like it was tearing itself apart. Buildings sagged under the weight of corrupted spells. Streets buckled where the ley lines had collapsed. Reality seemed to be unravelling in preparation for the impending cataclysm.

  Rafe pushed off the wall and kept walking, his shoulder aching from his earlier fight with those shadow mages. But it was the memory of the ritual site that kept trying to surface. The explosion. Vesper rising into the air as the fragments merged. Tenebrae’s shadows consuming her. The way she’d looked at him before it happened, terrified and desperate and still fighting even as the Echo took control.

  Rafe’s jaw tightened. He forced the memory down and focused on the pull in his chest. It had been growing stronger for the past hour, drawing him forward through streets he barely recognised.

  The architecture shifted as he crossed into the Spirefields. Buildings leaned against each other at angles that made his eyes water. Streets doubled back on themselves, creating distorted loops. This quarter had always been Forgotten, left to the wild currents of unchecked magic, but now it felt worse.

  The air thinned as he walked, each breath harder than the last. Magic saturated everything here, making his skin feel greasy.

  Rafe paused at an intersection where three streets met in a knot of malformed geometry. A building to his left had collapsed inward, its facade folding like paper. To his right, a townhouse hung suspended at an odd angle, held up by nothing but the warped magic of the quarter.

  The pull in his chest intensified. It wasn’t Vesper’s signature exactly, but something deeper. It was a hollow sensation, like the world was being drained in one direction.

  The ley lines were being syphoned. Magic flowed toward a single point somewhere ahead, pulled by an invisible current he could feel but not see.