Chapter 20

Lysander’s Watch

Kael was barely breathing. His face was pale, lips cracked, and every few minutes, his body shuddered like he was trapped in a nightmare. I could hear the faintest wheeze in his chest, like a fire trying to keep burning with no more wood to feed it. Raven sat beside him, hands clenched into fists, her eyes locked on his face like she was trying to will him back to life.

I kept my back straight, scanning the dark forest around us. The night was thick, pressing in like a living thing, the air heavy with something I couldn’t name. It wasn’t just silence—it was the kind that made the hairs on your arms stand up. The kind that whispered you are not alone.

Eira had disappeared into the tunnel hours ago. Maybe less. Maybe more. Time was a mess in my head. I should have been in there with her, fighting through whatever darkness lay inside the Obsidian Spire. Instead, I was here. Guard duty. Babysitting duty. Shadow duty.

A sound snapped me out of my thoughts.

A whisper.

Not the wind. Not the trees. Something else.

I turned my head sharply, eyes scanning the black void between the trees. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. But I knew better.

Raven stiffened beside me. “Did you hear that?” Her voice was quiet, but her fingers had found the hilt of her dagger. At least she wasn’t completely useless.

“Yeah,” I murmured.

Kael groaned softly, shifting, his forehead damp with sweat. His fever was getting worse. He needed real help, not whatever scraps of healing magic we had left.

I glanced back at the tunnel entrance. Still dark. Still no sign of Eira.

Hurry up, Eira.

Another whisper. Closer.

I stood, adjusting my stance. The weight of my sword felt solid in my grip, grounding me. The trees felt too tall, too close. The night felt wrong.

Raven rose to her feet, eyes narrowed. “Tell me I’m not imagining that.”

I didn’t. Because she wasn’t.

A shadow shifted. Not like an animal moving between the trees. No footsteps. No rustling leaves. Just… movement. Like a ripple through darkness.

“Lysander,” Raven whispered, her voice sharper now.

“I know,” I muttered.

For a moment, neither of us moved. Then the whisper came again. This time, I understood it.

He doesn’t have long. You will fail.

The voice was light, airy, almost playful.

I had never hated a sound more in my life.

Raven’s eyes darted to mine. She had heard it too. I could see the panic creeping up her face, the way her breath hitched.

I forced my voice to stay even. “You’re going to have to try harder than that.”

Silence.

And then—

A laugh. Soft. Amused.

I turned my body slightly, keeping Kael behind me. He wasn’t dying here. Not tonight.

Raven swallowed hard. “Lysander, what do we do?”

Good question. I had a sword. I had instincts. I had years of experience dealing with threats that hid in the dark. But this? This wasn’t something I could just stab.

I exhaled slowly. “We hold our ground. We don’t show fear.”

Raven let out a weak laugh. “Oh, great. We’ll just pretend we’re not terrified. Problem solved.”

I gave her a look. “Would you rather run?”

She shut up.

Kael let out a weak cough, his body jerking. I knelt beside him, pressing a hand to his burning forehead. His pulse was slow, too slow. I wasn’t a healer, but I knew this wasn’t good.

The whispers came again, curling around my ears like smoke.

The Spire was never meant for her. You send a lamb to the slaughter.

I clenched my jaw. “That lamb is going to burn you all to the ground.”

The whispering thing laughed again.

I hated it. I hated the way it knew things, the way it twisted the truth like a blade slipping between ribs.

Kael stirred, his fingers weakly gripping my wrist. His eyelids fluttered, and for a second, his fever-bright eyes locked onto mine. “Lysander…”

“Yeah, I’m here,” I said. “Try not to die.”

He exhaled a shaky breath that was half a laugh. “You’re terrible at comforting people.”

“You’re terrible at staying alive.”

His lips twitched like he wanted to say something else, but then his body slumped again.

Raven shifted beside me. “We need to get him out of here.”

“No,” I said immediately. “Not until Eira comes back.”

She looked at me like I was insane. “And what if she doesn’t?”

My fingers curled into a fist. That thought had been clawing at the back of my mind since she disappeared into that cursed tunnel. But I couldn’t—wouldn’t—think like that.

“She’ll come back,” I said firmly.

Raven scoffed. “You don’t know that.”

I turned to face her fully. “I do.”

And I did. Because if there was one thing I knew about Eira, it was that she was too damn stubborn to die in a place like that.

The air shifted again. A low, creeping pressure built in my chest, like something massive and ancient was watching.

The shadows in the forest thickened.

The voice spoke once more, almost a whisper, almost a sigh.

She is already lost. And soon, you will be too.

This time, the air turned frigid. The trees creaked, their branches bending in an invisible wind. The shadows moved.

Not just watching anymore. Approaching.

I grabbed Raven’s arm and yanked her back, positioning myself in front of her and Kael. My blade was already in my hand before my brain even registered the movement.

The darkness rippled like water disturbed. And then—

A shape stepped forward.

Not a person. Not a beast. Something in between.

Tall. Twisted. Its form flickered between solid and smoke. Its face—if it even had one—was wrong, shifting, shifting, shifting.

Raven sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, hell no.”

Kael was too weak to move, but I felt his fingers twitch against the dirt.

The thing tilted its head at me. Mocking.

I tightened my grip on my sword. “If you’re here to chat, I’m not in the mood.”

The thing grinned.

I didn’t know how. It didn’t have a mouth. But I felt it.

The whispers grew louder, overlapping, a chorus of voices, a rush of cold air, a thousand unseen hands crawling along my skin.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears.

I didn’t know if we could fight this.

But I knew one thing.

We weren’t running.

The shadows closed in.

And then—

A sound.

A sharp, cracking noise from inside the tunnel.

A roar.

And suddenly, the thing in front of me wasn’t grinning anymore.

I exhaled. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

And then the darkness lunged.

The moment the shadows lunged, I moved. Instinct took over, my sword slicing through the air. The blade passed through the thing’s form like cutting through smoke—no resistance, no impact. My stomach twisted.

Not good.

Raven cursed behind me, her dagger clutched tight. “Lysander, what the hell are we supposed to do?”

I didn’t have an answer.

The thing didn’t attack like a normal enemy. It moved like a shifting nightmare, one moment inches from my face, the next flickering away into the trees, its presence still pressing against my chest like something heavy and wrong.

Kael groaned weakly, a reminder that we couldn’t afford to lose this fight.

I repositioned myself, keeping Raven and Kael behind me. “We stall. Whatever happens, don’t let it touch you.”

She scoffed. “Oh, great. I’ll just politely ask it to keep its hands to itself.”

The thing twitched, its head tilting at an unnatural angle, almost like it was listening to something far away. The whispers around us swelled, swirling like a storm, but now there was something new.

A sound.

A deep, shuddering boom from inside the tunnel.

Eira.

She was alive.

The shadow thing hissed. Not with breath, not with a real mouth, but I felt its anger.

Then, like a switch had flipped, it turned on me.

One second, it was distant. The next, right there.

Its form stretched, twisting toward me, and my instincts screamed—move.

I barely dodged in time. Cold bit into my shoulder, like frost sinking into my bones. My grip on my sword faltered for half a second, and that was all it took.

The whispers poured into my skull, thick and suffocating.

You will fail. She will fall. The Spire will take her.

I clenched my teeth, forcing the voices out. “Shut. Up.”

I lashed out again, this time with everything I had. The blade glowed faintly—my magic, weak but still there—and when I slashed through the creature this time, it reeled back.

It felt that.

Good.

Raven’s dagger flashed as she lunged, slashing at its shifting form. The blade didn’t land, but the thing flinched, its shape flickering violently.

Then, all at once—

It vanished.

Like smoke swept away by the wind.

The pressure in the air lifted slightly. The whispers faded. The trees stopped moving.

But I didn’t relax.

My grip stayed tight on my sword, my breath ragged. “That’s not over.”

Raven didn’t argue. She just wiped her damp forehead and muttered, “I hate this. I hate all of this.”

A weak sound came from the ground. Kael.

I dropped to my knees beside him. His eyes were half-lidded, his breathing shallow. Too shallow.

“Hey,” I said, shaking him slightly. “Stay with me.”

His lips moved, but no sound came out.

Panic curled in my chest. He wasn’t getting better. If Eira didn’t come back soon—

Another boom echoed from the tunnel. Then a roar.

Raven and I locked eyes.

Something was coming.

And this time, I wasn’t sure if it was friend or foe.