Page 102 of The Madness Within

He stood now. The air bent around him. Flesh flickered, Cassian’s image momentarily warping into what he really was. Horns. Teeth. Eyes that remembered the Before.

“You think I care about casualties?” he said, voice now echoing like a blade dragged across bone. “The gate will open. It was always meant to.”

“And she’ll be the cause of it,” I said, quieter now, more focused. “She’s the storm. We just need to nudge her a little further. Push her until the dam breaks.”

Cassian nodded. “She’ll unravel. Love always makes them bleed.”

I chuckled under my breath. “Especially when they don’t even know what they’re loving.”

A beat of silence settled between us before I turned back toward the broken mirror. My reflection was jagged now, fractured. And I liked it that way.

“They think they’re ready,” I said. “They think they’ve found power, connection, some greater truth.”

I raked my fingers through my hair, blood drying on my knuckles.

“But what they’ve found is a ticking clock. And when the last chime sounds,” Cassian finished the thought for me, his voice a guttural promise. “...we’ll be the only ones left standing.”

Chapter Forty-Six

??The Madness Within

Dorian

The war room stank of old blood, burning sage, and the kind of fear that made men do brave, stupid things.

Maps were spread across the table, enchanted weapons lined the walls, and every ally worth their salt stood waiting, silent, all of them ready to die.

Ember sat at the edge of the table, wrapping her hands in leather like she was born for this. And maybe she was. She glanced at me sideways and said, “You’re thinking too loud.”

I gave her a look. “I was just wondering how I ended up married to the woman most likely to out stab me.”

She smirked. “Funny. I was wondering how I married a vampire who didn’t even buy me a ring.”

I let my lips twitch into the barest ghost of a grin. “It’s in my pocket. Along with a stake. Guess which one I plan to use first.”

“Better use both wisely,” she purred, leaning in just enough to let me know she could still break me in half with a look. “One might save you, the other might get you killed.”

God, I loved her. Even if I haven’t said the words out loud… I do.

I stepped forward, facing the room. My voice dropped low and steady, dark as the storm I was about to unleash. “Today, we don’t fight for crowns or kingdoms. We fight because we’re the last line before the end of everything. The Veil is ripping. What’s crawling through doesn’t care about treaties or bloodlines. But we do. We fight because we must. Because behind us stands the last Watcher, and I will raze hell on Earth before I let her fall.”

As the war circle ignited and the Hollow Orchard opened like a wound in the world, I turned back once, just once, to look at her. She was fire wrapped in flesh, forged from everything I'd ever feared and everything I’d ever loved. Then I stepped into the shadows and led them all into hell.

The moment we stepped into the Hollow Orchard, the air turned wrong. Thick. Breathing like a dying thing. The old ward I’d sealed the Veil with, etched in blood, bound with Ember’s name, was fractured. Cracked like bone under pressure.

Faint golden sigils blinked in and out of existence, fading like a heartbeat stuttering its last. I stepped forward, jaw tight, and touched the edge of the split. Cold rushed up my arm. Something had clawed through. Something powerful enough to ignore my warnings.

And now?

Now it wanted out.

The walls split like paper torn at the seams, the floor crumbled but we didn’t fall.

And from the wound in the Veil, the first creature spilled through, a shrieking, smoke bodied thing with antlers carved from bone and eyes like burning coals. It landed in front of me, snarling.

I didn’t hesitate.

My blade found its throat in one swing. Magic crackled from my fingers, fire laced with blood, carving sigils midair that seared through its cursed flesh. Ember fought beside me, a wild rhythm to her movements, her power no longer uncertain, no longer fledgling.

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