CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Devil in the Doorway
I dreamed of fire again.
Not flames, but memories burning themselves into my soul. I stood in the ruins of Caelum Reach, surrounded by mirrors that reflected versions of myself I didn’t recognize—some covered in blood, some cloaked in shadows, and one…
One pregnant.
Her eyes were hollow. Her hands were trembling. And behind her stood Killian, broken.
I woke up screaming.
Not from pain. But from knowing.
The Mirror of Thorns didn’t just show possible futures.
It showed inevitabilities—unless I broke the pattern.
Unless I broke myself.
—
The manor was quiet when I crept downstairs.
Moonlight spilled through the stained-glass windows, casting fractured reds and golds across the floor. My footsteps felt like thunder. Every shadow felt like
