Chapter 126: Family Betrayal
The wind howled against the battered stones of the Tower as night swallowed the horizon. Lightning forked across the sky, illuminating the faces gathered in the chamber with fleeting brilliance. Isla stood at the center, her fingers laced tightly with Damian’s. Around them, the others gathered in a semi-circle: Alaine, Leo, Lucia, Marcus, Rohen, and Brienne, whose eyes still shimmered with the memories that had flooded back.
“I remember the bindings,” Brienne said quietly, her voice carrying an unnatural clarity despite the storm. “They used me. I was the vessel between the Sombrosi and the Veyra... the key to a gate that should never have been opened.”
Lucia’s brows drew together. “Sombrosi and Veyra… tied together through blood and betrayal. But the Veyra were thought extinct.”
Brienne shook her head. “Not extinct. Hidden, just waiting.”
Lightning crackled again, and for a heartbeat, Damian thought he saw a shadow move where there should be none. He stepped in front of Isla instinctively.
Rohen’s voice was low. “The Sombrosi wanted to control the Veyra’s power, to enslave it. But they failed. Instead, they left behind something worse, a wound in the fabric of the Veil.”
“And now it’s bleeding,” Leo muttered, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. His voice held none of its usual humor. “And we’re knee-deep in the flood.”
A sudden cry broke the silence, it didn’t sound human. A screech that vibrated through the bones, high and shrill like metal tearing through silk. Isla winced, gripping her stomach. The baby. A surge of heat pulsed through her and for a terrifying moment, her vision blurred with golden light and whispers.
“They’re coming,” she gasped. “From beneath.”
The floor of the tower groaned. Dust fell from the ceiling. Lucia raised her arms, magic weaving around her fingers like threads of fire. “The Veyra were sealed beneath this land… beneath us. If Brienne was the key once, and the baby is now…”
“No.” Damian’s voice was sharp. “No one touches our baby. Not again.”
But Brienne stepped forward, eyes glowing faintly. “It’s not about touching her. It’s about protecting her. Isla’s child is the bridge between realms, born of power none of us fully understand. The Sombrosi cursed their own legacy to keep that door closed.”
Alaine turned toward the window, her stance taut. “Then who opened it?”
A voice answered from the stairwell.
“I did.”
All heads snapped toward the sound. A man stood in the archway, soaked from the rain, a silver ring glinting on his hand, etched with the twin sigils of the Sombrosi and Veyra.
“Cassian,” Rohen breathed, disbelief etched in his face. “You’re dead.”
smiled coldly. “Death is relative when you walk both worlds, cousin.”
He stepped inside slowly, his presence warping the air. Shadows clung to him like a second skin.
Brienne said, her voice trembling, “You made me believe you were one of us.”
“I was,” Cassian replied. “Until I realized we were never meant to be saviors. We were meant to be gatekeepers and you were meant to be the lock.”
He raised a hand and the floor beneath Isla cracked.
Damian lunged, shielding her with his body, but the power was no ordinary quake. It was a summoning. Something ancient stirred beneath the tower.
“Stop him!” Lucia cried, flames dancing from her palms.
Rohen and Leo moved in tandem, one blade, one claw. Alaine moved to flank, fast as lightning, and Brienne began chanting in the old tongue, her voice ringing with the cadence of blood memory.
Isla cried out again, the heat inside her now a living fire. She could feel her child, feel the pulse of magic that was no longer dormant. It responded to the threat. It grew with it and then came the moment that split the world.
Cassian’s hands struck the ground.
The tower erupted with light, an explosion of shadow and flame that flung them all back. Isla screamed, not in pain, but in fury, the sound ancient and commanding. Her golden aura surged outward, colliding with Cassian’s dark wave, a shockwave of such force that the stones of the Tower split.
Then there was silence.
There was smoke and rubble everywhere. The flicker of torches and many groans.
Damian’s voice cut through the fog. “Isla!”
She was kneeling in the center of a ring of ash, her eyes glowing, arms wrapped around her stomach. The baby pulsed with life inside her, alive, powerful and aware.
Cassian was gone.
Brienne pushed herself upright, coughing. “That wasn’t a fight,” she rasped. “That was a warning.”
Lucia nodded grimly. “He’ll come again. Stronger and with others.”
Alaine helped Leo to his feet, eyes scanning the wreckage. “What in the world just happened? Who would have thought our cousin would do this? Ñ We must strike first.”
Marcus was still in utter shock. His grief had been so abrasive that he had only recently began to be himself again. This was going to be a whole new process.
“No,” Damian said firmly, crouching beside Isla. “We protect her. At all costs.”
Isla looked up at him, her skin pale, her expression dazed and yet fierce. “We do both.”
Rohen’s expression darkened. “We’ll need allies beyond the Pack.”
Brienne’s gaze found his. “There’s one place the Sombrosi never dared return to. One place where the Veyra were betrayed.”
“Where?” Leo asked.
“The Dead Valley,” Brienne whispered. “And if we go there… we may never return.”
They all looked at Isla then. She held her belly, her breath steady now.
“This child is our future,” she said softly. “And the battle to protect them has already begun.”
Lightning struck again in the distance and the storm truly arrived.