Page 103 of The Madness Within

She was the storm.

More creatures followed.

Crawling. Slithering. Winged nightmares and horned things. We fought as one, the bond between us pulsing like a second heartbeat.

The ground trembled under the weight of magic. Vaelith’s warhammer rang against bone. Thalia’s ice bloomed in deadly flowers across spines. Noxen’s shadow beasts tore into enemy lines with precision. Mirek’s fangs and elongated nails ripped through flesh and bone.

But still… more came.

And then, silence.

A ripping noise, unnatural and vile, tore across the battlefield as two figures stepped through the thinning Veil.

Cassian.

Kreed.

But it wasn’t Cassian. Not anymore. The demon wearing his skin had peeled away most of the mask, revealing blackened veins crawling beneath his flesh, eyes too wide, too wrong.

And Kreed… Kreed looked like rot dressed in a man’s smile. Power radiated off him in waves that turned the air rancid.

The Gate pulsed behind them, alive, and waking.

“You didn’t think sealing the Veil would be enough, did you?” Kreed laughed, voice slick with venom. “You forget, Dorian... the Gate doesn’t close without blood. Her blood.”

“No,” I growled, stepping in front of Ember. “You’ll touch her over my dead body.”

“That can be arranged.”

Cassian, the thing pretending to be him, lifted a talon-tipped hand and Ember fell to her knees, choking on air that had turned to iron.

“No, no no no!” I dropped beside her, catching her before her head hit the stone. Her skin glowed faintly, the Gate responding to her very breath.

“She is the Watcher of the Veil. She keeps things locked inside,” Kreed said with glee. “And to open it... she must die.”

I lunged, but too late.

She screamed.

Light ripped from her chest in violent strands, lashing out and connecting with the crumbling edges of the Gate. Her body arched, hovering off the blood-slicked battlefield as the Gate reacted, like itknewher.

Claimed her.

And she kept screaming.

“No!” My throat tore with the word. I rushed to her, catching her as her body went limp, seizing, eyes rolled back, light still pouring from her skin.

Our allies charged the remaining monsters, but the Gate had opened. Reinforcements spewed through like pus from a wound. A winged beast tore through Thalia’s ice, clipping her shoulder. Mireth grunted as he was tackled by three twisted hounds. Noxen vanished beneath a swarm of spiders the size of wolves.

I felt the bond with Ember falter.

Something snapped inside me. It wasn’t a scream. It wassilence. Cold. Ancient. Final.

The Madness took hold.

I turned to Kreed, my vision tinted red, my magic laced with something else. Something older than the Gate.

He didn’t run. He smiled.

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