She knew better than to trust it.
Their kind didn’t believe in open doors or clean alliances. They believed in half-truths and blood-pacts, and Malrik—well, he was something else entirely.
Cassian glanced sideways as the old watchtower emerged, half-swallowed by vine and time.
“Friend of yours?” he asked, voice low.
Seraphine scoffed. “Malrik doesn’t do friends.”
“What does he do?”
She hesitated. “He remembers.”
Cassian arched a brow. “Well, that’s not creepy at all.”
“Don’t touch him,” she said. “Don’t bleed near him. And don’t—under any circumstance—let him make a deal.”
Cassian grinned. “I’m starting to think youdolike me. That’s a lot of concern.”
Seraphine didn’t answer.
The doors creaked open as they approached.
Malrik Sablewing stood in the center of the ruined hall like he’d been waiting there for centuries.
Pale as death, dressed in layered obsidian silks that shimmered like shadow-oil. His hair spilled loose over his shoulders, dark and damp, and his wings—sleek, black-veined, almost translucent in the broken morning light—were folded behind him like a cloak of living leather.
His crimson eyes locked onto Seraphine’s.
They flashed silver.
“You brought a storm,” he said, voice like velvet soaked in frost.
She inclined her head. “And you always did love a little chaos.”
Malrik’s gaze slid to Cassian. “That’s not chaos. That’s memory you haven’t touched yet.”
Cassian stiffened slightly.
Seraphine stepped between them. “We’re not here to play, Malrik. We need your mind.”
Malrik offered a ghost of a smile.
“You always did get right to the bleeding point.”
They moved to a side chamber where cracked mosaics still shimmered with lost enchantments. Brann gawked at them. Alek kept to the shadows. Lira stayed close, eyes on Malrik like a dagger ready to fly.
Seraphine set the encoded Heartblade map on the stone table.
Malrik didn’t touch it.
He simply closed his eyes, placed his palm against the blood-woven runes, and breathed in.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then silver spilled from his lashes like smoke, his body arching slightly as he inhaled memory.
Everyonebacked up.
Cassian, to his credit, didn’t flinch.
