Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

It exploded into chaos in the tunnel.As if ink bled through paper, shadows swirled from the stone, coiling into something. They weren’t wraiths. They weren’t even alive.But they were hungry.As one of the figures lunged toward us, its form shimmering in and out of existence, Maxwell shoved me behind him. His sword tore through it, a clean passage — only for the shadow to twist around the blow, reknitting itself in an instant.Jameson swore. “Oh, that’s not fair.”Already Soraya was in motion, her hands weaving spells in the air. An outward pulse of energy slammed into the beasts and pushed them away. The tunnel shuddered with the impact, flakes of rock showering down from the ceiling.“Move!” she snapped.We ran.The catacombs went on forever, with a thick air of something ancient and observing. The shadows poured out behind us, silent but unyielding, their motions unnatural — jerking, skipping along the walls and floor as if they weren’t tied to the same rules as us.I felt them in

The second tether was lost, but the fight wasn’t over.I still felt the Guardian, coiled deep inside my bones, waiting. She wasn’t screaming anymore. She wasn’t pressing up against me.She was watching.I didn’t know what was worse.Behind us lay the wreckage of the catacombs, the shattered altar. A residue of magic in the air was almost audible, as if it hummed through the walls, shivering in my ribs. The heaviness of what we had done — what we were about to do — bore down on me.Only one tether remained.And it was in the center of the Council’s stronghold.No more hidden ruins. No more lost catacombs.This was their domain. Their seat of power.And we were just about to burn it to the ground.Maxwell hadn’t said anything since I awoke.Not really.Not in the way that mattered.He was watching me as if he thought I might explode at any moment, his eyes keen, guarded. Like you were waiting for the moment I wasn’t me anymore.It was killing me.At the edge of the city, we had stopped

The world wasn’t the same. It should have been. The city still stood. The sky hadn’t fallen. The Council’s bastion hadn’t dissolved into grit. And yet — all of it felt different. Lighter. Heavier. Both at the same time.I had no idea how long I stood there, encircled in Maxwell’s arms, and I’m sure I shook from fatigue. The tether was gone. The Guardian was gone. So why did I still sense her shadow?Jameson exhaled a long, thin breath, shattering the silence. “Alright. So. Not to burst the bubble, but… now what?”No one answered. Because none of us knew. All we had focused on for weeks was this — the breaking the tethers, stopping whatever was buried inside of me from consuming me whole. Now it was done. But the world hadn’t ended. And we were still standing.Soraya rubbed her temples and breathed slowly. “We need to get out of here before the Council realizes what just went on.”Jameson scoffed. “Oh, I’m pretty sure they know already.” He waved at the cracked stone, at the fading imp

The highway in front of us wound through the faded edges of the city, where the buildings had dwindled, one disappearing and the next appearing in short order, before giving in to thick forest and long abandoned property. Beneath centuries of history, behind centuries of distance, the ruins lay a little beyond the treeline, buried a little like a wound the world was unwilling to test.No one spoke as we walked. Not at first. There was too much festering, unvoiced pressure between us, too many unuttered thoughts.For once, Jameson wasn’t making jokes. His knife darted in and out of finger gaps, his idea of latent energy. Soraya kept looking up at the sky, her magic dancing in the air as if waiting for something to follow us. Maxwell … he was quiet, looking at me every few minutes, searching my expression for something.I knew what he was searching for.Signs that I was slipping.That someone who had spoken to me in the Council’s ruins was still whispering in my head.And the truth? It

The descent was slow. With each foot we took into the ruins, it was as though we were entering a past that had been expecting us. The air was thick, pressing against my skin, saturated with more than time. It was expectant.Maxwell took the lead, drawn blade, wary steps. Jameson came next, muttering under his breath about how this was the worst idea we’d ever had — which, given our track record, was really saying something. Soraya walked with me, tracing her fingers over the stone walls, feeling the wear of ages past in the sigils carved into the passageway.I walked in the center, my heart slamming with a something I would not name.I wasn’t scared.I was waiting.So was whatever was down here.Jameson exhaled sharply. “Remind me again why we’re heading into a cursed underground tomb?”Soraya sighed. “Because if we don’t, Lena will continue to have visions, we’ll continue to fumble blindly, and eventually, something worse will come knocking.”Jameson scoffed. “Is it worse than whatev