Chapter 59: The Heart of Darkness

The dead forest groaned around them as they pressed forward, the blackened trees twisting like tortured sentinels in the fading light. Kael's breath came in shallow gasps, each step sending fresh waves of pain radiating from where the Shard had burned him from the inside out. He kept his eyes fixed on Aurelia's back, her silhouette cutting through the unnatural gloom ahead.

Lucian moved like a shadow at his side, every muscle coiled tight. "This place reeks of death," he muttered, his crimson eyes scanning the skeletal branches above. "Not just recent death. Old death."

Kael didn't need the vampire's enhanced senses to know that. The air itself felt thick with it—a weight pressing against his skin, seeping into his lungs with every breath. The Shard's absence in his hand left him feeling strangely hollow, as if part of him had been carved out and left behind in that clearing.

Aurelia stopped so abruptly Kael nearly collided with her. Before them, the trees gave way to a sight that made his stomach drop.

The temple rose from the earth like a broken tooth, its obsidian pillars cracked and weeping dark vines that pulsed faintly, as if breathing. The entrance gaped wide, the darkness within so complete it seemed to swallow the dim light filtering through the dead canopy.

"Cheerful," Aurelia said dryly, though her fingers tightened around her daggers. "Reminds me of home."

Kael swallowed hard. The pull he'd been feeling since they left the cave intensified here, a dull throb behind his ribs that had nothing to do with his injuries. Something in that temple was calling to him.

Lucian's nostrils flared. "They're here. Dozens. Maybe more." His hand went to the sword at his back. "We walk in there, we're not walking back out."

"Then we'll make sure they don't either." Aurelia's smile was all teeth. "Stay close. And try not to die."

The moment they crossed the threshold, the temperature dropped sharply. Kael's breath fogged in the air as they moved through the antechamber, their footsteps echoing off walls carved with scenes that made his head pound just to look at—ancient wars, forgotten gods, and at the center of it all, a figure shrouded in shadow with hands outstretched.

The corridor opened into a cavernous chamber, its ceiling lost in darkness. At its heart stood an altar, and atop it—

Kael's pulse stuttered.

The Shard.

It pulsed where it lay, its crystalline surface spiderwebbed with cracks, glowing with that same sickly light that had nearly killed him. Around it stood robed figures, their faces hidden beneath deep hoods. And before the altar—

The Veil's leader turned slowly, their bone mask catching the Shard's eerie glow.

"You're late."

The voice wasn't a voice at all—it was a chorus of whispers, layered and wrong, scraping against Kael's skull like nails on stone.

Aurelia shifted her weight, her daggers glinting. "Had to stop for snacks."

The leader tilted their head. "You bring the key to our doorstep and still think this is a game?" They raised a hand, and the Shard flared violently.

Pain lanced through Kael's skull, so sudden and sharp he nearly collapsed. Visions flooded his mind—a city crumbling to dust, stars winking out one by one, a darkness so vast it had no end—

Then Lucian was there, hauling him upright. "Stay with us," he growled.

The robed figures moved as one, their robes falling away to reveal faces that weren't faces at all—just smooth, featureless flesh stretched too tight over skulls.

Aurelia lunged first, her blades flashing. "Kael! The Shard!"

Kael stumbled forward as the chamber erupted into chaos. Lucian became a blur of motion, his sword carving through the faceless figures with brutal efficiency. Aurelia fought like something possessed, her movements too fast, too precise to be entirely human.

The leader watched it all unfold, unmoved. When Kael was within arm's reach, they struck—one skeletal hand snapping out to clamp around his throat.

Agony.

White-hot and all-consuming, radiating from where their fingers burned into his skin. The Shard's power surged through him, tearing through muscle and bone, and for one terrible moment, Kael understood everything—the true purpose of the Shard, the Veil's real goal, the fate that awaited them all—

Then the leader's grip faltered.

Their mask cracked with an audible snap, a hairline fracture running from temple to jaw. For the briefest instant, their hold on Kael weakened just enough—

Aurelia's dagger found its mark, plunging deep into the leader's side.

The scream that followed wasn't human. It wasn't even a sound so much as a pressure wave that sent them all reeling. The leader staggered back, their hands flying to their mask as the cracks spread, chunks of bone falling away to reveal—

Kael's breath caught.

Beneath the mask was his own face.

Older. Hollow-eyed. But undeniably his.

The leader smiled with Kael's mouth, and when they spoke, it was with his voice.

"See?" they whispered. "I told you you were the key."

Then the world exploded in light.