The corridor ahead narrowed, the walls closing in until they seemed ready to crush us. The glowing runes on the floor pulsed faintly, their light casting long, eerie shadows on the uneven stone. Each step forward sent a chill through my body, the air growing heavier with every passing moment.

  The shard in my pocket hummed like a heartbeat, its warmth seeping into my skin. The whispers were softer now, more like faint murmurs at the edge of my thoughts, but they carried an unmistakable urgency.

  “Almost there,” Aeryn said, her voice low but steady. She was in the lead, her silver hair catching the faint light as her shadows spread out ahead of us, feeling for traps or hidden threats.

  “Define ‘almost,’” Lyra muttered, her voice sharper than usual. She was close behind me, her daggers gripped tightly in her hands.

  “The core isn’t far,” Aeryn replied, glancing back. “But we’ll have to fight for every step.”

  “Because that’s new,” Lyra said dryly, but her tension was obvious in the way her eyes darted to every shadowed corner.

  We reached a final archway, its surface covered in glowing glyphs that shifted and writhed as if alive. The air around it shimmered faintly, and I felt the shard pulse more insistently.

  “This is it,” Aeryn said, stopping in front of the archway.

  I moved to stand beside her, staring at the barrier. “How do we get through?”

  “The shard,” Aeryn said simply. “Its power is the only thing that can break the seal.”

  “Of course it is,” I muttered, pulling the shard from my pocket. Its glow brightened as I held it up, the heat flaring against my palm.

  Lyra leaned against the wall, watching me with a faint smirk. “No pressure, Vale. Just unlock the door to destiny or whatever.”

  Aeryn shot her a glare. “This isn’t a joke.”

  “It’s always a joke until it’s not,” Lyra said, twirling one of her daggers.

  I ignored them, focusing on the shard. Its whispers grew louder, their words forming clearer shapes in my mind. “Sever the veil. Open the path.”

  I took a deep breath, channeling the shard’s energy into a focused point. The light surged, and the glyphs on the archway flared in response. For a moment, they resisted, pushing back against the shard’s power.

  But then the seal cracked, its light unraveling like threads pulled from a frayed fabric. The archway dissolved into faint motes of light, revealing a massive chamber beyond.

  The Core of the Spire was nothing like I’d expected. The room was vast and circular, its walls lined with shifting threads of light that wove themselves into intricate patterns. The floor was a mosaic of glowing runes, each one pulsing faintly in time with the threads.

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  At the center of the room stood a massive crystalline structure, its surface shimmering with an otherworldly light. Threads of energy extended from it, connecting to the walls and floor in a chaotic, pulsating web.

  “The Core,” Aeryn said, her voice barely above a whisper. “This is what binds the Threads together.”

  “It’s also what’s breaking them,” Lyra added, gesturing to the cracks spiderwebbing through the threads. “This place looks like it’s barely holding itself together.”

  The shard in my hand flared again, the whispers in my mind growing louder. I took an instinctive step forward, drawn to the core by an invisible pull.

  “What’s it saying?” Aeryn asked, stepping closer.

  “Same as before,” I said, my voice shaky. “Sever or bind.”

  Before anyone could respond, the ground beneath us trembled. The threads of energy around the core flickered violently, and a deep, resonant hum filled the chamber.

  “Something’s coming,” Aeryn said sharply, her shadows flaring to life.

  From the base of the core, a massive figure began to emerge. Its body was forged from the same crystalline material as the core, its limbs jagged and impossibly sharp. Its eyes glowed with a golden light, and its presence filled the room with an oppressive weight.

  “Of course there’s a guardian,” Lyra muttered, dropping into a defensive stance.

  The creature let out a low, rumbling sound as it stepped forward, its movements slow but deliberate.

  “It’s protecting the core,” Aeryn said. “It won’t let us near it without a fight.”

  “Big surprise,” I muttered, raising the shard. Its glow intensified, forming into a blade in my hand.

  The creature’s eyes locked onto me, its golden gaze burning like fire. Then it charged.

  The guardian moved with incredible speed, its massive arms swinging in wide arcs that shattered the ground on impact. Aeryn’s shadows surged forward, wrapping around its legs and pulling it off balance, but it quickly recovered, its jagged limbs slashing through the shadows with ease.

  Lyra darted in from the side, her daggers flashing as she struck at the cracks in its crystalline body. “Sion! Get to the core while we distract it!”

  I hesitated, watching as the guardian swiped at her, narrowly missing her as she twisted out of the way.

  “She’s right,” Aeryn called, her voice sharp. “We’ll hold it off. Go!”

  Clutching the shard tightly, I ran toward the core. The heat from it was almost unbearable now, the whispers in my head a deafening roar.

  As I reached the base of the Core, the shard’s light flared brighter than ever. The threads of energy surrounding the Core shifted, their patterns spiraling into chaos.

  “Sever or bind,” I whispered, staring at the glowing mass of energy.

  Behind me, the sounds of the fight raged on. Aeryn’s shadows lashed out at the guardian, forcing it back step by step. Lyra moved with deadly precision, her daggers finding weak points in its crystalline form.

  But they couldn’t hold it forever.

  The shard’s whispers grew louder, their urgency pushing me forward. “Sever the chain. Bind the wound. Choose.”

  I raised the shard, its energy surging through me. The threads around the Core seemed to reach out, wrapping around the shard as if begging for resolution.

  The ground trembled violently, and I felt the shard’s energy pulse through me in waves. Images flooded my mind—memories that weren’t mine, fragments of lives lived and lost.

  I saw the moment the Threads first began to fray, the chaos that followed, and the figure at the center of it all. A man standing before the Spire, his hand on the core.

  My face.

  “It really was me,” I whispered, the realization hitting me like a blow.

  “Sion!” Aeryn’s voice snapped me back to reality. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it now!”

  The guardian roared, its massive body collapsing to one knee as Lyra’s daggers found another weak point. Aeryn’s shadows surged around its arms, holding it in place.

  I took a deep breath, focusing on the shard. “Sever or bind,” I repeated.

  The decision was mine.