"She’s bleeding from the inside."
Seraphis’s voice was calm..too calm.
Haelyn snapped her head toward her. "Who?"
"The tether."
Archer stepped forward. "You an Liora."
"No," Seraphis said, eyes sharp. "I an the new one. The traitor among us."
They were back at the cave’s mouth. Ezra was asleep against Haelyn’s chest, peaceful for the first ti in days. But the air... the air tasted like betrayal.
Archer’s jaw clenched. "You’re sure?"
Seraphis nodded. "I felt the energy twist when we left the Pool. Like soone close had anchored Liora’s magic again. But this ti, it wasn’t the child."
Haelyn stood slowly, her body tense. "Then we expose them."
Seraphis looked between them. "No. We kill them."
Deep under the roots of the Moonstone Tree, Zareth washed his hands in a basin of wolf’s blood.
Liora stood behind him, pacing. "They’re starting to suspect."
Zareth wiped his fingers on his cloak. "Let them."
"You’re not afraid they’ll trace it back to you?"
"I want them to."
Liora blinked. "Why?"
Zareth turned, calm as still water. "Because nothing sharpens a kingdom like betrayal."
"You’re playing a dangerous ga," she hissed.
"I am the ga."
Archer lit a torch and turned to Haelyn. "One of the soldiers you took in during the last siege...there was a girl, wasn’t there?"
"Dara," Haelyn replied. "Why?"
"She brought food last night. You said Ezra started screaming right after, didn’t he?"
Haelyn’s face paled. "You think it’s her?"
"I don’t think. I know. She never made a sound when the wards were burning. Not a flinch."
Seraphis’s hands glowed faintly. "Bring her in."
They found Dara near the woods, kneeling beside a stream, humming.
Archer grabbed her by the throat and slamd her against a tree.
"You fed my son poison," he growled.
Her eyes flared golden. "He isn’t yours."
That was all the proof they needed.
Haelyn didn’t hesitate...her dagger slashed across Dara’s cheek. The skin sizzled.
"She’s marked," Seraphis confird.
Dara laughed, blood dripping down her chin. "She’s in all of us."
Archer didn’t wait. His blade drove through her stomach. Twisted.
Dara gasped.
Whispered, "It’s too late."
And then she burst.
Not exploded..disintegrated...into ash and black smoke, which shot skyward into the trees like a screaming soul.
"She used her," Haelyn whispered.
"She prepared her," Seraphis corrected. "Dara was just a shell."
Archer turned. "She was a ssage."
Under the Moonstone Tree, Liora smirked.
Zareth approached, brushing a fleck of Dara’s ashes from his sleeve.
"She burned beautifully," he said.
"She was the first," Liora murmured. "The rest will fall like dominoes."
Zareth turned to her.
"No," he whispered. "They’ll tear each other apart first."
"You saw her burn," Seraphis said quietly. "And yet no one asked how Liora knew Dara’s na to begin with."
Archer froze, halfway into drawing another sigil in the dirt.
Haelyn’s voice was low. "She was in our inner circle."
"She knew the layout of the camp. The food routes. The patrol gaps." Seraphis turned slowly. "And the only people who knew those... were in this room."
Archer’s grip tightened around his blade.
"I want nas," he said.
"Then ask your shadows," ca a voice from behind.
They spun.
Artemis.
Blood streaked his jaw. His coat was torn, claws still bloody, eyes sharper than frost.
Archer stood. "You’re late."
Artemis smirked. "I was busy ripping Tiago’s lungs out. You’re welco."
Haelyn blinked. "He’s dead?"
Artemis cracked his neck. "Scattered across the northern hills."
Seraphis stepped forward. "And you didn’t bring a head?"
"Didn’t want to ruin the mood."
Archer sheathed his sword slowly. "You were supposed to track the Branded. The wolves that defected to Liora’s side."
Artemis nodded. "I did."
"And?"
"They’re dead."
Haelyn narrowed her eyes. "All of them?"
Artemis raised a brow. "You doubt ?"
"No," she said. "I don’t trust you."
Silence.
Artemis stepped closer, gaze flicking to Ezra.
"Is he safe?"
Archer shifted between them. "You don’t get near him. Not yet."
"Still holding a grudge, brother?" Artemis asked with a smirk.
"Still watching you."
Seraphis broke the silence. "We have a bigger problem."
"We always do," Artemis muttered.
"She’s infiltrated more than our supply line," Seraphis said. "She’s got eyes in our war council. Every plan we make bleeds back to her."
Archer’s voice was flat. "Then we don’t make plans anymore. We make traps."
Haelyn looked between them. "How?"
"We feed her a lie," Archer said.
Seraphis nodded slowly. "Let her taste it. Let her get confident."
"Then bury her in it."
That night, they gathered the inner circle.
Eleven people.
Soldiers. Strategists. dics.
Haelyn stood with Ezra in her arms, watching every movent.
Archer paced. "We’re relocating to the Hollow Spine Valley at dawn. Three routes. North, east, and deep woods. The child will be on Route Two..eastward."
Every eye was on him.
He watched their pupils, their posture.
He wasn’t looking for agreent.
He was watching for flinching.
Liora’s spies always flinched.
A tremor.
A swallow.
A glance too long.
And there it was.
From Kalen.
Young. Soft-spoken. Supposedly loyal.
But his hand twitched.
Once.
Right when Ezra’s location was spoken.
Archer stepped forward slowly.
"Kalen," he said.
The boy looked up. "Yes?"
"Your eyes."
"W-what about them?"
"They’re lying."
He didn’t even try to run.
Because he couldn’t.
Seraphis snapped her fingers...and his bones froze.
Kalen began to scream.
But it wasn’t his voice anymore.
It was hers.
Liora.
Echoing through his lungs.
"You can kill the shell," her voice laughed. "But the rot’s already in the root."
Kalen’s mouth split wide open...
And spiders poured out.
Real ones. Black. Hundreds.
The camp exploded into chaos.
Swords drawn. Flas ignited. Screams tore through the trees.
Archer grabbed Ezra from Haelyn’s arms. "Get him out!"
Haelyn turned to run...when a blade appeared at her throat.
Freya. Her second-in-command.
"I’m sorry," Freya whispered, shaking. "She said she’d spare my daughter..."
"She won’t," Haelyn said, teeth bared. "She never does."
Then she drove her elbow into Freya’s nose, grabbed her by the throat and slamd her into a stone pillar.
"Never threaten my child," she growled.
Artemis tore through the chaos like a reaper, flinging spider-ridden bodies aside.
Seraphis’s sigils burned white-hot, vaporizing nests of crawling insects.
Kalen’s body twisted...bones snapping, skin bursting.
Archer yelled, "NOW!"
Seraphis launched a beam of light straight into Kalen’s heart.
The body convulsed. .
And erupted.
The trees caught fire.
The earth split.
But when the smoke cleared..
Ezra was still breathing.
Haelyn stood tall.
And Artemis?
He was kneeling, covered in black gore, holding sothing small in his palm.
A tooth.
Still glowing.
Still pulsing with her magic.
"She’s getting desperate," he said quietly.
Archer nodded.
"And desperate people..."
"...make mistakes."
Under the Moonstone Tree, Liora scread as her link was severed.
Blood stread from her nose.
She looked at Zareth.
"Kill them."
Zareth smiled.
"Oh, I will."
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