KAIDA POV
The blood-red communication stone exploded to life in my hands, burning hot enough to make me drop it.
"Kai!" Mira's voice screamed out before I could even pick it back up. "Kai, if you can hear me—"
I lunged for the stone, pressed it to my ear. "Mira! Where are you? Are you hurt?"
"Listen! I don't have much time!" My sister's voice was panicked, terrified. "The blood debt—Kai, I found papers in Vex's office. The numbers don't match. The debt was paid off TWO YEARS AGO!"
The world stopped.
"What?" I couldn't breathe. "That's impossible. Vex said—"
"Vex LIED!" Mira's voice cracked. "Mom and Dad's debt was only fifty thousand gold. You've stolen over three hundred thousand worth of goods in five years! He's been lying to keep you working for him, and—"
Sounds of shouting in the background. A door crashing open.
"Mira!" I screamed into the stone.
"Kai, he's moving me! Not to the Skybound Chains—somewhere else! He knows about tonight's rescue, he's—" Her voice cut off with a scream that made my blood freeze.
"MIRA!"
Silence.
Then Vex's smooth, amused voice: "Hello again, little thief. Your sister is quite the clever researcher. Pity she discovered the truth too late to do either of you any good."
"If you hurt her—"
"You'll what? You're already coming to kill me. I doubt threatening me further changes anything." He laughed. "But I'm curious—did you really think I'd let five years of profitable work end just because a debt was paid? You're the best thief in the Realms, Kaida. Why would I ever let you go?"
"Where is she?" I demanded.
"Somewhere your rescue mission won't reach. Somewhere even Death himself can't find her." Vex paused. "Tell me, does Azrael know yet? That you bonding with him was part of my plan all along?"
My heart stopped. "What?"
"Who do you think told you about the Bone Crown's location? Who do you think left those convenient maps in the black market? Who made sure every ward in Death's vault had a weakness?" Vex's voice was poison-sweet. "I've been engineering this for three years, girl. You were never the master thief who stole from Death. You were my puppet dancing exactly as planned."
Through the bond, I felt Azrael's shock. He'd been listening.
"Why?" My voice came out broken. "What do you want?"
"Immortality. True immortality. Not the cheap blood-magic extension I've been using." Vex sounded almost friendly now. "You see, when you complete the bond and become Death, you'll be a newborn god—powerful but inexperienced. And newborn gods can be killed, their power absorbed. I'll drain you dry, take Death's mantle for myself, and finally achieve what I've always deserved."
"You're insane."
"I'm visionary. There's a difference." He laughed again. "You have three hours and forty-one minutes before the blood moon ceremony. If you want to save your sister, you'll need to make a choice: go to Seraphine like she demands, or come to me. You can't do both. And whichever one you abandon will kill their hostages out of spite."
"Where's Mira?" I screamed.
"Figure it out, master thief. You're so good at solving impossible puzzles." The stone went dead.
I hurled it across the room. It shattered against the wall.
"He played us." My voice sounded distant, hollow. "From the beginning. Every choice we made, he was pulling the strings."
Azrael's face was grim. "Not every choice. He couldn't have predicted you'd actually succeed in stealing the Crown. Or that I'd be desperate enough to bond with you instead of letting you die. He may have started the game, but we changed the rules."
"Did we?" I wanted to laugh or scream or both. "Because right now it feels like we're still dancing exactly how he wants."
Finn burst into the room, Rook right behind him. "We've got a problem. Seraphine just sent another message—she's moved ALL the prisoners to the execution chamber. Including Lyric. They've got two hours before she drops them into the Void."
"Two hours?" But Azrael's countdown read 3 HOURS, 38 MINUTES. "That doesn't match the timeline. Why would she—"
"Because she's forcing you to choose," Rook said grimly. "Save the prisoners in two hours, or deal with whatever Vex is planning in three. You can't do both."
I looked at Azrael. "Can you feel where Mira is? Through your death-sense or whatever it's called?"
He closed his eyes, concentrating. "I can feel her life-force. She's... underground. Deep underground. Moving through—" His eyes snapped open. "The old mine tunnels. The ones that collapsed fifty years ago under the Markets."
"Those tunnels are a maze," Finn protested. "Even if we found the entrance, we'd never navigate them in time."
"I've been in them before." My mind was racing. "When I was twelve, before the Cartel caught my family. My dad used to hide stolen goods in those tunnels. I know the paths."
"You know the paths from ten years ago," Rook pointed out. "After a collapse. They could be completely different now."
"Or they could be exactly the same." I grabbed my climbing gear. "It's our only shot."
"Wait." Azrael caught my arm. Not pulling me back—just holding on. Through the bond, I felt his fear. Not for himself. For me. "If Vex is down there waiting, and you go alone—"
"I won't be alone. You're coming with me."
"Then who saves the prisoners from Seraphine?" Finn demanded. "We can't do it without you two. We're just mortals with magic tricks. We need Death's power to fight a fallen goddess."
The impossible choice stared me in the face.
Save Mira, or save Lyric and Cassian and three hundred prisoners.
Save my sister, or save everyone else.
Through the bond, I felt Azrael's memories—five hundred years of making these exact choices. Watching people he cared about die because duty demanded he save others instead.
"This is what you meant," I whispered to him. "This is the burden. Not just witnessing death but choosing who dies."
"Yes." His star-eyes were infinitely sad. "Welcome to being Death. The weight doesn't get lighter. You just get stronger at carrying it."
I wanted to scream. Wanted to break something. Wanted to steal time itself and make there be enough hours to save everyone.
But there wasn't.
There never was.
"Finn, Rook—you go to Seraphine," I said finally. My voice sounded like someone else was speaking. "Take every magical artifact we have. Bargain with her, threaten her, do whatever you need to buy time."
"And you?" Finn asked quietly.
"We're going after Mira." I looked at Azrael. "If Vex wants Death, let's give him what he wants. On our terms."
Rook stepped forward. "There's something you should know. About the mine tunnels. They're not just collapsed—they're cursed. When they fell, they killed eighty-six miners in one moment. Their ghosts still haunt those passages."
"Ghosts?" I looked at Azrael. "Can you do something about that?"
"Maybe. But—" He hesitated. "The kind of power it would take to calm eighty-six angry spirits would drain me significantly. I'd be weakened when we face Vex."
"Can you do it or not?"
"Yes. But Kaida—" He grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. "If we go down there weakened, and Vex is waiting with the full Cartel, we will die. Not 'might die.' Will die. I can see the probabilities now that our countdowns are linked. This path leads to our death."
"What about the other path?" I demanded. "If we go to Seraphine instead?"
Azrael's face went pale. "Everyone in her prison dies. Including Lyric. And when Seraphine realizes we're not handing me over, she releases the three hundred immortal criminals. They'll destroy the city in hours."
Two paths. Both led to death.
"Then we make a third path." I pulled away from him. "We're thieves, remember? We don't follow the rules—we break them."
"How?" Finn asked desperately.
I was figuring it out as I spoke. "Seraphine wants Azrael. Vex wants me. They're both expecting us to show up, either together or separately. So we do neither."
"What does that mean?" Rook asked.
"It means—" I grabbed the shattered pieces of the communication stone. "—we make them think we're in two places at once. Rook, you're a shapeshifter. Can you look like Azrael?"
Rook's eyes widened. "You want me to impersonate Death himself? To a goddess who knew him for millennia?"
"Just long enough to distract her. While you're doing that, Azrael and I go get Mira. We're in and out in thirty minutes, then we hit Seraphine's prison together before she realizes it's a trick."
"That's insane," Finn said.
"It's also our only chance." I looked at Azrael. "Can it work?"
Through the bond, I felt him calculating probabilities, running through scenarios. Finally: "Maybe. If we move fast. If nothing goes wrong. If—"
The hideout's alarm shrieked.
Someone was breaking in.
We grabbed weapons, ready to fight. The door exploded inward.
But it wasn't Vex's guards.
It wasn't Seraphine's soldiers.
It was Lyric, covered in blood, barely standing. Behind her, the sky was burning red—the blood moon rising hours early.
"It's a trap," she gasped. "All of it. Vex and Seraphine—they're working together. They planned this whole thing to—"
She collapsed.
I caught her before she hit the ground. Her countdown flickered above her head: 11 MINUTES.
"Lyric! Stay with me!" I shook her. "What do you mean they're working together?"
She coughed, blood on her lips. "Seraphine isn't a prisoner in the Skybound Chains. She never was. She OWNS them. She and Vex made a deal—she helps him capture you, he helps her capture Azrael. They're going to sacrifice both of you together. Create a god-killer weapon that—"
Her eyes rolled back.
Her countdown hit zero.
Lyric died in my arms.
And above my head, my own countdown shifted:
57 MINUTES.