KAIDA POV
"It's me."
Lyric stood in the center of our hideout, tears streaming down her face, hands raised like she was surrendering. "I'm the traitor. I told Vex about the bond."
For three heartbeats, nobody moved.
Then Finn lunged at her, knife drawn. I caught his arm before he could reach her throat.
"Wait!" I shouted, even though my own rage was screaming at me to let him go. "Let her explain!"
"Explain what?" Finn snarled. "She sold us out! Mira's going to die because of her!"
Lyric flinched but didn't run. "I had to. Vex has my brother."
The room went silent.
"Your brother?" I stared at her. In two years of working together, Lyric had never mentioned family. "You told me you had no one."
"I lied." Lyric's voice cracked. "My little brother, Cassian. He's fourteen. Vex kidnapped him six months ago, said if I didn't feed him information about your jobs, he'd sell Cassian to the flesh traders."
Through the bond, I felt Azrael's grim understanding. He'd seen this pattern before—people forced to betray the ones they loved to save the ones they loved more.
"Why didn't you tell us?" I demanded. "We could have helped!"
"Could you?" Lyric's laugh was bitter. "You've been trying to save your own sister for five years and getting nowhere! What could you have done for mine?"
The words hit like a slap because they were true. I'd been so focused on Mira, I'd never noticed Lyric was trapped in the same nightmare.
Rook spoke quietly from the corner. "When did you tell Vex about the bond?"
"This morning." Lyric wiped her eyes. "He contacted me through the communication stone, said he knew we were planning something. Demanded details or Cassian would lose a finger. So I told him about Kaida bonding with Death." She looked at me desperately. "But I didn't tell him about tonight's rescue! I swear! He already knew about that somehow!"
I wanted to believe her. But above her head, her death countdown flickered: 23 MINUTES—47 YEARS—18 MINUTES.
"She's telling the truth," Azrael said suddenly. "Or at least, she believes she is."
"How do you know?" Finn demanded.
"Because her death date is still flickering. If she'd already committed fully to betraying us, her path would be fixed. The fact that it's still changing means she hasn't decided which side she's really on."
Lyric looked up at me, broken and desperate. "I don't want to die. But I don't want Cassian to die either. Please, Kai. If there's any way to save both our siblings—"
"There isn't," Azrael said flatly. "Vex has both of them in his stronghold. We can't save everyone."
"Then we save them all or we save no one." The words came out before I could think them through. "New plan. We don't just rescue Mira—we get Cassian too. And anyone else Vex is holding hostage."
"That's insane," Finn protested. "We barely have a plan to save one person!"
"Then we'd better get planning." I turned to Rook. "You said you had maps and intelligence on Vex's stronghold. Show me everything."
Rook hesitated, then nodded. He spread a massive blueprint across the table—a detailed layout of the Crimson Cartel's fortress, complete with guard rotations, magical ward locations, and prisoner cells.
"How did you get this?" I breathed.
"I have my sources." Rook's ageless eyes glinted. "But there's something you should know. Vex isn't just holding the sacrifice ceremony in his stronghold. He's doing it in the Skybound Chains—Seraphine's prison."
My blood ran cold. "The fallen goddess? Why would Vex use her prison?"
"Because Seraphine owes him," Rook explained. "Vex helped her capture something she wanted badly—a specific prisoner with divine blood. In exchange, she's letting him use the Chains' execution chamber for tonight's ceremony. The blood moon's power is strongest there because of the divine architecture."
Azrael swore—an actual curse word that sounded wrong coming from Death himself. "This changes everything. We're not just breaking into a Cartel stronghold. We're infiltrating a divine prison."
"Which means we need to know how to bypass divine wards." I looked at Finn. "Can you do it?"
Finn studied the maps, his expression grim. "Maybe. The Chains were built during the age of gods, so the wards are ancient. But they're also deteriorating after five hundred years without proper maintenance. If I can find the weak points—" He traced his finger along several locations. "—here, here, and here. We might be able to slip through."
"Might?" Lyric's voice was small.
"Magic isn't exact," Finn snapped. "Especially god-magic. We could get through clean, or we could trigger every alarm in the place and die screaming. Those are the options."
"I'll take screaming over watching my sister die," I said.
Lyric moved closer to the maps. "I can help with the locks. Seraphine uses sonic-keyed barriers—they respond to specific musical frequencies. I've been practicing songs that can shatter divine locks for months."
We all stared at her.
"You've been planning to break into the Chains?" I asked slowly.
"I've been planning to break Cassian out of wherever Vex was hiding him," Lyric admitted. "I just... never thought he'd be in a god's prison."
For the first time, I saw Lyric clearly—not as the confident, flirtatious bard who always had a joke ready, but as someone just as desperate and terrified as me. Someone who'd been fighting her own impossible battle while pretending everything was fine.
"Okay." I took a breath. "Here's what we do. Finn handles the wards. Lyric handles the locks. Rook, you'll shapeshift and gather intelligence inside—find where they're keeping Mira and Cassian. Azrael and I will provide the distraction."
"What kind of distraction?" Azrael asked warily.
"The kind where Death himself walks into a divine prison and demands an audience with a fallen goddess." I grinned despite the terror churning in my gut. "She's got history with you, right? Use it. Keep her busy while we extract the prisoners."
"Seraphine will try to kill me," Azrael said flatly.
"Will she succeed?"
"Probably not. But she'll make it hurt."
"Then you'll match my sister's torture nicely." I turned back to the maps. "We go in through the eastern bridge. It's the longest approach, but Finn says the wards are weakest there. We have—" I checked the clock. "—eight hours and thirteen minutes before midnight."
"And what happens if we fail?" Finn asked quietly.
I looked at Lyric's flickering countdown: 15 MINUTES—47 YEARS—12 MINUTES. Then at my own: 29 DAYS, 15 HOURS, 8 MINUTES.
"Then we fail knowing we tried everything," I said. "That's all we can do."
We spent the next three hours planning every detail. Rook provided guard schedules. Finn calculated ward-breaking sequences. Lyric practiced her lock-shattering songs until her voice was hoarse.
But I kept noticing something wrong. Lyric would glance at her communication stone, then quickly look away. She'd start to say something, then stop herself. And her death countdown kept flickering faster—10 MINUTES—47 YEARS—8 MINUTES—47 YEARS.
"Lyric," I said during a break. "What aren't you telling us?"
She froze. "What do you mean?"
"Your countdown is going crazy. Something's about to happen that you're not saying."
Through the bond, I felt Azrael's sudden alertness. He was watching Lyric carefully.
"I—" Lyric's hand went to her communication stone. "Vex contacted me again an hour ago. I didn't want to say anything because I knew you'd call off the rescue."
My stomach dropped. "What did he say?"
"He knows we're coming. All of us. He said if we try to break in through the eastern bridge—" Her voice broke. "—he'll execute Mira immediately instead of waiting for midnight."
The room exploded.
"You didn't think that was important information?!" Finn shouted.
"I thought we could still—"
"Still what?" I demanded. "Walk into a trap knowing he's ready for us?"
"There's more." Lyric's voice was barely a whisper. "He said he'd make a trade. If I come alone, right now, he'll release Cassian. But only if I agree to take Mira's place in the sacrifice."
Her death countdown stopped flickering.
It locked in at: 4 MINUTES.
"No," I said immediately. "Absolutely not."
"It's the only way to save Cassian!" Lyric backed toward the door. "I'm sorry, Kai. But you'd do the same for Mira. You know you would."
"Lyric, wait—"
But she was already running, the door slamming behind her.
I lunged after her, but Azrael caught my arm. "Let her go."
"She's going to die!"
"I know." His star-eyes were sad. "But it's her choice. The same way saving Mira is yours."
Through the bond, I felt his certainty: we couldn't save everyone. Sometimes, people chose their own sacrifices.
Finn was already grabbing weapons. "We follow her. Use her as a way in. If Vex is focused on Lyric, maybe we can still—"
Rook's communication stone blazed to life.
Not blood-red like Vex's. Pure white—the color of divine messaging.
He answered it, his face going pale. "It's Seraphine. The fallen goddess herself."
"What does she want?" I demanded.
Rook listened, then looked at me with something like fear. "She wants to make a deal. She'll help us break into the Chains and rescue everyone—Mira, Cassian, even Lyric."
"In exchange for what?"
"In exchange for Azrael." Rook's voice was grim. "She wants Death himself delivered to her prison by midnight, willingly, or she helps Vex kill everyone we love."
Azrael went very still beside me.
Above his head, where there had never been a countdown before, numbers suddenly appeared:
6 HOURS.