Chapter Fourteen
The Gate of Secrets
The path to the Obsidian Gate wasn’t marked on any map.
It wound through forgotten valleys and dead forests, beneath skies that never cleared. Lyra traveled alone, her cloak wrapped tight against the bone-deep chill. The mountains here were silent—not the comforting stillness of her homeland, but the kind that whispered warnings through the stones.
She hadn’t told anyone she was leaving.
Not Mira. Not Fen.
Not even Kael.
Because if she had… he would have stopped her.
And she couldn’t afford to be stopped.
He was dying—slowly, silently—beneath the weight of a power neither of them fully understood. She could feel it through the bond, even at a distance. His fevered dreams. His pain. The creeping darkness clawing inside him.
Every step she took
