Page 107 of Soulmarked

Lissandra's sanctuary rose from the mist like something from a darker fairy tale. The witch herself matched her domain, storm-grey hair wild around a face that had seen centuries, eyes like wells into darker worlds. She greeted Juno with casual familiarity but barely glanced at the rest of us.

“You want to open a gate to Hell.” Her voice carried weight beyond sound, making reality ripple slightly. “Ambitious. But foolish.”

I held out Cade's dagger, ignoring how my hands wanted to shake. “Can ye find him?”

Lissandra's fingers brushed the blade, and her eyes began to glow with inner fire. Power crackled through the air as shereached out with senses I couldn't begin to understand. For a moment that stretched like years, she was silent.

Then she exhaled sharply, shaking her head. “Whoever has him... they're beyond my sight. Beyond even the princes of Hell.” Her eyes met mine, carrying ancient knowledge and something like pity. “But he's alive.”

The words hit like lightning, making my heart stutter. “Then ye can help. Can open a way to...”

“I won't open the portal.”

The words fell like stones into still water. Around us, the fog thickened, carrying whispers from things that had never been human.

“Won't?” My voice came out dangerously soft. “Or can't?”

Lissandra's smile was sharp with secrets. “Both. Neither. The magic required... it's not just about power. It's about balance. About prices paid in blood and bone and...”

“Name it.” I stepped closer, letting her see everything raw and desperate in my expression. “Whatever price ye want, whatever payment...”

“You don't understand.” Her power filled the air like static before a storm. “This isn't about payment. Opening a gate to those depths... it would draw attention from things that make your prince look young. Things that have waited millennia for such a chance.”

“Don't care.” The words carried all the weight of choices already made. “Let them come. Let the whole of Hell itself try to stop me. I'm getting him back.”

Lissandra studied me with eyes that had seen empires fall, her expression unreadable. “You would risk everything just to reach one man?”

“He's not just a man.” I held her gaze, refusing to back down.

Something shifted in her ancient eyes, recognition, maybe, or understanding. “You love him.”

“Aye.” The admission felt like breaking and healing at once. “Enough to tear Hell apart to get him back.”

Lissandra sighed, setting the dagger aside with deliberate care. The blade hummed faintly, still carrying traces of whatever Cade had become in those final moments. “Opening a controlled gate isn't like summoning some lesser demon for information, hunter. This isn't a one-way mirror you can just peek through. To breach Hell's domain is to tear a hole in the fabric of reality itself, a hole that won't close just because you want it to.”

“We've dealt with unstable portals before,” Lex stepped forward, but I caught the uncertainty in his usual swagger.

Lissandra's laugh carried centuries of scorn. “Have you? Because the last one nearly released of all hell's demons. If I open a path to those depths, something else will come through. Something that makes your prince look like a child playing with matches.” Her power filled the air like storm clouds gathering. “And if something already has your marked one, then it will know you're coming. You won't save him. You'll just become its next meal.”

My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out the whispers of whatever watched from the fog. Every second we wasted with words was another second Cade was alone in that darkness, becoming something beyond flesh while things older than time itself circled him like hungry wolves.

“So what?” The words came out like broken glass, my accent thick with fury. “We just leave him there? Wait and hope he finds his own way out?”

“Sometimes survival isn't about charging in.” Lissandra's expression might have been carved from stone. “Sometimes it's about waiting for the right moment, gathering the right tools...”

“Feck your right moment!” I took a step closer, letting her see everything raw and desperate in my expression. “You don't know him. Don't know what he sacrificed to keep this world frombreaking apart. If there's even a chance to get him back, I'll take it. I don't care what it costs me.”

Juno's cool hand found my arm, trying to ground me, but I shook her off. The anger, the helplessness, the bone-deep fear clawed at my ribs like living things. Standing here, doing nothing while Cade faced whatever waited in those depths alone, was worse than any torture Hell could devise.

“You think I don't understand sacrifice?” Lissandra's voice rang with something deeper than sound, something that unraveled. “You think I haven't lost people to forces beyond mortal comprehension? Haven't watched love turn to ash in the fire of gods?”

“Then you know why I can't just wait!” My voice cracked on the last word. “Can't just stand here while he's... while they're...” The words stuck in my throat like thorns, choking on possibilities I couldn't bear to voice.

But Lissandra remained unmoved, her ancient eyes carrying something too close to pity. “Your love blinds you to the bigger picture. Opening a gate now, without proper preparation, without understanding what truly holds him, it would undo everything he sacrificed himself to protect.”

I couldn't accept them. Couldn't stand here and listen to reasons why I should abandon the one person who'd made me believe in something beyond the darkness we hunted.

“Fine.” I forced ice into my voice, letting fury freeze over the cracks in my heart. “You won't help? Then we'll find another way.”

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