The Spires rise out of the ground like broken teeth.
Sharp, jagged, leaning in at angles that defy logic, as if they're waiting for us to step inside so they can swallow us whole. The sky above them is heavy, too still, stretched thin like a canvas about to tear.
The map Freyr gave me is useless now.
The line ends at the outer rim, the ink smudged and curling where the Spires begin.
Beyond this point. There are no paths. No instructions.
Only choices.
I grip the pendant tighter, but even its glow feels dull here, like the Spires are draining the life from everything they touch.
Justin ligers a step behind me, silent, waiting for me to make the first move.
Good.
I don't want him beside me.
I step forward.
The air changes the moment I cross the threshold. It's colder. Thinner. Each breath tastes like dust and memory.
The towers loom closer now, pressing in on either side, the spaces between them narrowing until the word is nothing but stone and shadows.
I can hear whispers.
Not loud.
Not clear.
Just….voices. Familiar and not. Twisting my name into something that sounds like a warning. Or a threat.
Justin's footsteps echo too close behind me,
I clench my jaw. "You don't have to follow me."
He doesn't answer.
Of course he doesn't.
I keep moving.
The path twists without warning, one moment clear, the next a dead end, forcing me to turn back, to choose again.
Justin says nothing when I get it wrong.
Watching.
Waiting.
Judging.
The Spires prey on it. They feed me scraps of things I don't want to see—--flashes of my mother's face, the memory of her voice calling me "little one," only to twist the words into something colder.
Weak.
Helpless.
You're not ready.
I swallow hard, pushing faster now. Forcing the pendant to lead even when it flickers like it wants to stop.
Justin reaches for my arm once—-just a brush, just enough to steady me—-but I pull away like his touch burns.
"Don't," I snap, harsher than I mean to.
His face doesn't change.
But the hurt flickers there—-just for a second.
And it makes something inside me twist in ways I don't want to name.
I turn away from him, deeper into the Spires, deeper into the suffocating dark, the whispers crawling closer now, louder, feeding on the distance growing between us.
The further I walk, the more the bond feels like it's tightening around my throat.
I shove it down.
Ignore it.
Keep moving.
Because if I stop…..I know I won't have the strength to start again.
The Spires narrow into a hollow cavern, the walls pressing closer until the world shrinks to another but darkness and breath.
Then….the space opens.
And the lake is ther.
A flat, black mirror stretched across the stone, perfectly still, perfectly wrong.
The air smells like decay. Like something ancient and rotting beneath the surface. I freeze at the edge, staring at the reflection rippling faintly in the shadows.
Justin steps up beside me, but I keep my gaze forward, refusing to meet his eyes.
Because the reflections show more than the lake.
They show me.
Dozens of versions, scattered across the surface, fragmented, blurred—-some looking back at me with hollow eyes, others sneering, twisted, cruel.
I can't tell which ones are real.
Maybe none of them are.
I swallow hard.
My mother's face flickers in the reflection.
But it's wrong.
The smell is wrong. The tilt of her head, the cold gleam in her eyes—-it's not her. But it looks like her.
"Sarah," the reflection whispers, her voice threading through the cavern, soft, sweet, and jagged like broken glass. "You've forgotten who you are."
I close my eyes, but the voices stays with me.
You let them chain you. You let him chain you.
The reflection twists. It's Justin now, but not. His face stretched into something I don't recognize—-his hand reaching for me, holding the pendant like a leash.
You were never meant to be bound.
My pulse races.
I feel Justin shift beside me, but he doesn't speak.
He doesn't see what I see.
The reflections blur together now—-my mother, Justin, Freyr, the Court, all speaking with the same voice.
They want you weak. They want you tame. They want you to forget what you are.
The lake's surface shudders, and a new reflection appears.
Me.
But not the me standing at the water's edge.
A version of me without the pendant.
Without the bond.
She stands taller. Freer. Her face is calm, her hands empty, her eyes bright—-not weighed down by fear, or doubt, or anyone else's leash,
She reaches out to me.
This is who you could be. If you let go.
I lift my hand before I realize what I'm doing,
The pull is strong.
Stronger than the bond.
Stronger than Justin's silence beside me.
Stronger than my own voice screaming at me to stop,
The water ripples under my fingers.
But the pendant burns.
A searing pain shoots through my hand, ripping me back into my body, back into the suffocating dark, the whispers collapsing into silence.
I stumble back, gasping, my hand blistered, shaking.
Justin is there instantly, reaching for me.
But I flinch away.
I don't say what I'm thinking.
You're the reason I can't break free.
I bite down on the scream clawing its way up my throat.
I don't look at him.
I don't speak.
I turn back toward the next path—-whatever it is, wherever it leads.
And I don't stop.
*******
We step out of the cavern into a clearing bathed in pale twilight—-soft, muted, the kind of light that doesn't warm your skin. The Spires stretch behind us, silent and still, their jagged edges fading into the mist.
Freyr is nowhere.
But the path ahead is clear.
A narrow trail winding into the mist, vanishing into a horizon that doesn't look like it wants us to follow.
I don't wait.
I step forward.
The pendant is heavy against my chest, but it's pull is weak now, like even it's reluctant to keep going. But I do. Because if I stop now, I'll break. And I can't afford that.
Not here.
Not in front of him.
Justin says nothing behind me.
But I feel him.
Always there. Always following.
Like he's tethered to me.
Or maybe I'm the one still tied to him.
I don't look back to check.
I don't tell him what I saw in the lake.
How close I came to letting it take me.
How close I came to breaking the bond completely.
He doesn't ask.
We walk in silence.
The mist parts for me, curling around my steps like it recognizes me. But when I glance—-just once—-I see it doesn't part the same for him.
He follows through the cold, shadows clinging to him longer, tighter, like the realm itself is trying to keep us separate.
I tell myself this is my choice.
Not his.
Not the pendant's.
Not Freyr's.
Mine.
But the words feel empty.
Like everything else here.
********
Justin's POV
She doesn't look back.
She hasn't looked back at me for hours.
I follow because I can't do anything else. Because I won't let her walk into whatever waits ahead alone, even if she's already decided that's what she wants.
The bond between us is still there.
But it feels like a thread stretched thin, fraying with every step she takes away from me.
I want to reach for her.
I want to pull her back.
But I don't.
Because I know if I try…..
She'll cut that thread herself.
I already felt her try.
So I follow.
Always a step behind now.
And I don't know if she'll ever let me catch up again.