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The stag’s thundering hooves close behind me, crystal antlers whistling through the air at my back.
I dive into the passage, tumbling into Kelaros, who catches me before I hit the ground. Behind us, the stag slams into the wall, too large to fit through the narrow exit. One crystalline antler spears into the passage, missing my head by inches.
“The supports,” I gasp, pointing to the crystal formations that frame the passage. “Hit them!”
Kelaros doesn’t hesitate. His knife strikes the nearest support, cracking it at its base. The formation groans, crystal dust raining down as the structure begins to fail.
I smash my blade into the opposite support, my magic surging unbidden to infuse the strike with explosive force. The crystal shatters, and the ceiling above the entrance collapses in a thundering avalanche.
We scramble backward as rubble fills the passage, sealing the way behind us. The stag’s final cry echoes through the ruins, a rage-filled sound fading into silence.
In the following quiet, my heart pounds hard, while the sithean stone pulses, its silver light our only illumination in the new corridor.
“That was…” Kelaros pauses, brushing crystal dust from his clothes.
“Effective,” I finish, sheathing my knife. “But temporary. Nothing stays broken in this place for long.”
He assesses the collapsed passage. “We should move before it finds another way around.”
“Agreed.”
I turn to assess our new surroundings, while behind us, the rubble shifts and begins to knit.
20
CATHEDRAL OF CRYSTAL
AMALIA
The sithean stone drags me forward with increasing urgency, its silver light cutting through the darkness of the passage. My boots whisper across crystal dust as I follow its pull, each step bringing me closer to Elionn.
Slowly, the corridor widens, the ceiling rising higher until I step into a vast open space and stop short.
A cathedral of living crystal spreads in all directions, soaring spires reaching toward an unseen sky. Opalescent light courses along veins within the walls, floor, and ceiling, its hypnotic rhythm casting rainbows. The chamber expands and contracts around us as if we stand within a giant, crystal heart.
“By all the Darkness,” Kelaros whispers, and the sound ripples outward, echoing back to us in fragments.
Unlike the previous chambers with their broken columns and shattered floors, this space remains whole, pristine, untouched by the decay facing the rest of the Opal Court.
And at the center stands a formation that stops my heart for three full beats.
Elionn floats inside a cocoon of translucent crystal, suspended several feet above the ground. His silver hair fans out around his head in a frozen halo, and his body hangs half-submerged in the crystal, his chest rising and falling in perfect synchronization with the pulsing chamber.
The sithean stone flares hot enough to sear my wrist, then goes stone cold, its purpose fulfilled.
I’ve found him.
I approach with careful steps, alert for any signs of guardians or traps. The crystal remains solid, but every footfall draws out a note, the melody rising and falling with my progress.
As I draw closer, I see Elionn clearly. His eyes remain closed, features relaxed in what might be peaceful sleep if not for the unnatural stillness of his limbs. The silver of his skin has taken on an opalescent sheen, reflecting the colors that flow through the chamber’s veins.
“Princeling,” I call softly, not expecting a response.
Nothing changes, but the lights pulse brighter for a moment, as if the chamber itself recognizes me.
Ten feet away, searing heat erupts beneath my palm. I clutch my wrist, biting back a cry as the sigils writhe beneath my skin, trying to reach toward Elionn’s suspended form.
Five feet away, the pain intensifies, racing up my arm and into my chest, linking my heartbeat to the rhythm around me.
