Chapter Thirty-Five: The Amethyst Sentinel
The key did not lie still on the granite earth. Even as the mountain settled back into its natural, silent state, the object at Roric's feet hummed with a low, rhythmic thrumming that matched the new pulse in his own mind.
Roric knelt, his breath still coming in ragged gasps from the cold and the terror of the shattering. He reached out with a trembling hand, his fingers hovering over the bone-white surface of the key. The amethyst eye at its center wasn't just blinking; it was dilating, reacting to his warmth like a living pupil.
"Don't touch it, Roric," Elias warned. The boy was slumped against a rock, his silver light so faint he was almost translucent. "That isn't a remnant of Ember. That's a piece of the Archive. It's a tracking device."
"It fell from her," Roric said, his voice raw. He ignored the warning and closed his fingers around the key.
