Page 97 of The Madness Within

A knock rattled the room door. The map table flickered to life as our allies stepped inside. The seer, wrapped in celestial silk. The serpent witch, hissing low beneath her breath. A man with storm eyes and silver veins pulsing beneath his skin.

All of them drawn here by what broke through the Veil. All of them are now bound to this cause.

Dorian’s hand found the small of my back as I stiffened. “You okay?” he whispered against the shell of my ear.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“You’re a terrible liar,” he murmured, then pressed a kiss there. “But you’re mine. So we’ll fix it anyway.”

The silver-veined man stepped forward, setting a broken bone-like fang on the table. “The beast we fought was only a scout,” he said. “It mentioned Kreed. And Cassian.”

“Not Cassian,” the serpent witch corrected. “Something wearing his skin.”

A cold weight settled in my stomach.

“Cassian is dead,” the seer confirmed, her voice barely above a whisper. “The creature that walks in his body is old. Older than your stars. And it serves only itself.”

“And what does it want?” I asked.

She looked at me, eyes milky, distant. “You. Him. The Veil. Open.”

The table cracked beneath her words.

Dorian tensed beside me, the predator in him uncoiling, coiling again. “Then let’s give it hell.”

“We’re not ready,” the storm-eyed man said.

Dorian’s hand tightened around mine. “Then we get ready. Fast.”

A low boom trembled through the mansion, an echo from the border. The Veil was thinning again. They were testing it. And they wouldn’t stop until it shattered.

I turned to Dorian. “We should’ve had a honeymoon before the apocalypse.”

He smirked, eyes glinting. “We had a mating ritual and three orgasms. That counts.”

“Aren’t you charming.”

“I can be more charming with less clothes.”

I shoved his shoulder, but didn’t move far. “We’re going to have to kill something again soon, aren’t we?”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “Yes. And I’ll make damn sure it bleeds first.”

And just like that, we were back in sync.

Watcher of the Veil and her Keeper... Yin and yang.

Together, dangerous.

Alone, doomed.

But either way, we’d see this war through.

And we’d burn the world down before we let it take each other.

Chapter Forty-Three

??Ashes and Oaths

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