Chapter 182 Seraphine
Rhevik stiffened. “This is my territory.”
“And it’s compromised,” Lukas shot back. “You just watched my men get turned into puppets. That thing is feeding here. Growing here.”
Rhevik’s jaw clenched hard enough I thought it might crack. “My people have lived here for centuries. They’re not going to just leave because I tell them to.”
“I know,” Lukas said, voice dropping slightly—but not soft. Never soft. “So you get the ones who will listen. The ones who don’t argue. The ones who trust you.” A beat. “Get them out.”
Rhevik’s gaze flicked back toward the forest. Toward where the men had been. Then back to Lukas. “…and the rest?”
Lukas didn’t hesitate. “We’ll deal with it.”
Not comforting. Not gentle. Just truth.
Rhevik nodded once. Sharp. Decisive. “I’ll start with the west sector and move inward,” he said. “Anyone who resists gets marked for forced relocation.”
Lucian raised a brow. “Wow. Look at you making king decisions.”
Rhevik didn’t even look at him. “They don’t get to die because they’re stubborn.”
Fair. Very fair.
Amara crossed her arms. “Okay, cool, love that for us, but also—where does that leave us?”
Lukas turned. To me. And everything in my chest tightened instantly. “You’re not going back to the penthouse yet,” he said.
Dante stepped forward immediately. “Excuse me?”
“She’s the only one who can see it,” Lukas continued, ignoring him completely. “The threads. The rot. The connection.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m sending her off alone—” Dante snapped.
“She won’t be alone,” Lukas cut in. “But she is going.”
My stomach dropped. “Going where?” I asked, even though something in me already knew.
Lukas held my gaze. Steady. Serious. “To the mountains.”
Dante went still. “…no.”
“The voidbinder,” Lukas said.
The word settled heavy in the air.
Dante shook his head. “Absolutely not. You want her to go to a reclusive, anti-dragon ancient that hates our kind?”
“I want her to go to the only being I know who might understand what we’re dealing with,” Lukas shot back.
Silence snapped tight between them.
I swallowed. “…the death serpent,” I said quietly.
Lukas nodded once. “He might know how to stop it,” he said. “Or how to send it back to wherever it came from. If that’s even possible.”
Dante dragged a hand through his hair, pacing once like he needed to burn the energy out before he exploded. “Or he kills her on sight.”
“He won’t,” Lukas said.
“You don’t know that—”
“I do.”
Dante stopped. Slowly turned. “…how?”
Lukas’s gaze flicked to me again. “To him,” he said. “She won’t look like prey.”
My stomach twisted. That didn’t sound reassuring.
“That doesn’t mean I’m okay with this,” Dante said, his voice low and dangerous.
“You don’t have to be okay with it,” Lukas replied calmly. “But you do have to understand what’s at stake. If that thing keeps feeding,” Lukas continued, quieter now, “this won’t stay contained to Death territory.”
Lucian sighed. “Yeah, I figured that part.”
“It will spread,” Lukas said. “Through the land. Through the threads. Through everything.”
“Worst case?” Lucian asked.
Lukas didn’t hesitate. “It doesn’t stop.”
Silence. Heavy. Final.
Dante’s hand found mine again, squeezing tight. I looked up at him. Saw the war in his eyes. The fear. The anger. The refusal.
“…we don’t have a choice,” I said softly.
His jaw tightened. “I don’t like it.”
“I know.”
“I really don’t like it.”
“I know,” I repeated, a little smile tugging at my lips despite everything.
He exhaled sharply, then leaned down, pressing his forehead briefly against mine. “…then I’m going with you.”
Lukas nodded once. “Good,” he said. “Because if that old man decides he doesn’t like you—”
Lucian cut in dryly, “We’re all screwed?”
Lukas didn’t even blink. “Exactly.”
Amara let out a breath. “Great. Love that for us. Road trip to see the ancient void wizard who may or may not murder us.”
Rhevik was already moving toward the second SUV, pulling out his phone. “I’ll handle the evacuation.”
Lukas turned back to us. “Leave now,” he said. “The longer you wait, the stronger it gets.”
I glanced back toward the trees one last time.
I swore... For just a second... I felt it again.
Watching. Waiting. Smiling.
I grabbed Dante’s hand tighter. “Let’s go.”
“Coordinates just came through,” Lucian said, already pulling his phone from his pocket. “We’re taking the 4Runner. Better gas mileage—and it won’t bitch about climbing a mountain.”
“Great,” Amara muttered. “Love a car that doesn’t complain when we’re possibly driving to our deaths.”
“No one is dying,” Dante snapped automatically, already moving toward the passenger side.
Lucian gave him a look. “You say that like you’ve met the voidbinder personally.”
“I don’t need to meet him to know I’ll burn him if he touches her,” Dante shot back, opening the door.
Lucian snorted. “Yeah, because that’s going to go over well with an ancient being that bends shadow and time for fun.”
Dante didn’t respond to that.
Which meant he was already thinking about it.
We all loaded in quickly—Lucian in the driver’s seat, Dante riding shotgun, Amara sliding in beside me in the back.
The doors slammed shut almost in sync.
And then—
We were moving.
Fast.
The city blurred behind us within minutes, replaced by long stretches of road and the slow, creeping rise of forest and mountain ahead.
Lucian drove like he always did—controlled, precise, but pushing the speed just enough to say I’m not messing around.
Dante was already leaning forward slightly, one arm braced against his knee, his mind clearly ten steps ahead of everyone else.
“If he’s hostile, we don’t engage immediately,” Dante said, his voice sharp, focused. “We assess. We don’t give him a reason to view us as a threat.”
Lucian glanced at him sideways. “You? Not give someone a reason to feel threatened? That’ll be a first.”
Dante ignored him. “Seraphine speaks first. He’ll respond to her before any of us.”
“Why?” Amara asked.
“Because she’s different now,” Dante said without hesitation. “He’ll see it.”
I shifted slightly in my seat, that familiar weight settling in my chest again.
Different.
Yeah.
That was one way to put it.
Lucian tapped the wheel lightly. “And if he decides he doesn’t care and wants to kill us anyway?”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Then I make sure he regrets trying.”
Lucian huffed a quiet laugh. “Comforting.”
Silence settled for a moment after that.
Not empty.
Just… heavy.
The kind that comes when everyone is thinking the same thing but no one wants to say it out loud.
I turned slightly, glancing beside me.
Amara was staring down at her hands.
Quiet. Too quiet. That wasn’t like her.
I reached over, gently taking one of them. Her fingers were cold.
She blinked, looking up at me like she’d been pulled out of something far away. I gave her hand a small squeeze.
“…who knew, right?” I said softly.
She frowned slightly. “Knew what?”
“That this would be our life,” I said. “Ancient dragons, death creatures, creepy mountain men who might murder us…” A faint smile tugged at my lips. “…not exactly what I pictured growing up.”