The world was wrong.
Caius felt it in his bones, in the marrow of his existence—a shifting, twisting sensation that crawled beneath his skin. He had known darkness before. The alleys of Evernight, the cold stone of the hideout, the looming shadow of the Hollow King's rule.
But this was different.
The darkness here breathed. It moved in unnatural ways, writhing like smoke yet heavier than iron. The city around them was not the city they had left.
The rooftops stretched impossibly high, twisting into angles that defied reason. The buildings stood at strange tilts, their windows gaping like mouths frozen mid-scream. The streets were paved with black stone that pulsed beneath their feet, veins of pale light crawling through them like dying embers.
Caius's breath fogged in the air, though the temperature was neither hot nor cold—just empty.
Selene stood at his side, daggers clutched in white-knuckled fists, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. Her usual sharp confidence was gone, replaced with something rarer: fear.
"Caius," she murmured. "Where the hell are we?"
He didn't know.
But the figure standing before them—the hooded one from his visions—did.
The hooded figure did not move like a person.
Their presence stretched, flickering between solid and shadow, their robes flowing as if caught in an unfelt wind. No face could be seen beneath their hood, only an abyss of shifting darkness.
They regarded Caius with an unnatural stillness before speaking.
"The Timeborn walks beyond the waking world."
The voice wasn't singular. It was layered, overlapping whispers and echoes that sent a sharp tremor through the air. It wasn't just heard—it was felt, vibrating in his ribs, rattling in his skull.
Selene swallowed hard. "Okay. That's creepy as hell."
Caius forced himself to meet the hollow void where the figure's face should have been. "What is this place?"
The figure did not answer immediately. Instead, they raised an elongated, claw-like hand, gesturing around them.
The Veil shifts, and the unseen world is revealed.
Caius wasn't sure if they had spoken aloud, or if the words had simply formed in his mind.
"The Veil," he said under his breath.
The realm that exists between time and abyss. The place that had touched him since the day he was born.
The figure gave the slightest nod. "You were not meant to step beyond it."
Caius's jaw clenched. "Then why did you pull us here?"
The air rippled. A sound like distant thunder rolled through the streets.
"We did not."
Selene stiffened. "Then what the hell did?"
The figure turned their head. A slow, deliberate movement.
Caius followed their gaze.
Far beyond the twisted skyline of the city, past the broken spires and shadowed towers—
Something was watching them.
A figure. No, a presence. It loomed in the distance, too far to make out, yet Caius could feel its gaze upon him.
His stomach twisted. His breath came faster.
This was the same feeling from before.
The Hollow King had not just been looking at him.
Something else had been looking through him.
The hooded figure turned back to him. Their many-voiced whisper curled through the air.
"You have been marked."
Caius clenched his fists, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Marked.
"What does that mean?" His voice came out sharper than intended, but he didn't care.
The figure stood silent for a long moment before finally speaking.
"You are not the only one who moves through time."
A chill swept down Caius's spine.
"What?" Selene demanded. "What the hell does that mean?"
The figure's form flickered, shifting like a mirage. When they spoke again, the world seemed to darken around them.
"The Hollow King does not rule alone."
Caius's breath hitched. "That… that's not possible. He conquered Evernight himself. He wields the black flames. His power—"
"—Is borrowed."
Selene took a step back. "No. No, we would know if he wasn't the one in charge."
The figure's hood tilted slightly. "Would you?"
Caius swallowed hard. "Who is he borrowing it from?"
The Veil shifted. The world twisted. A sound—low, guttural, ancient—rumbled through the air, sending a pulse through the black stone beneath their feet.
And the answer came.
"The Hollow King kneels to the Watcher."
Caius felt the words like a punch to the chest.
The Watcher.
The presence watching him. The thing behind the Hollow King.
The true ruler of Evernight.
And it knew him now.
Selene's breath came out unsteady. "So… what? We kill the Hollow King and something worse takes his place?"
The figure was silent.
Caius exhaled sharply. "Then how do we stop it?"
For the first time, the figure's layered voices did not speak immediately.
Then—
"You cannot."
Silence fell between them.
Caius's grip tightened. "That's not an answer."
The figure's form wavered, as if even being here strained their existence.
"The Watcher sees all paths. It will not fall by mortal hands."
Caius set his jaw. That wasn't good enough.
They had fought too long, lost too much, to be told it was impossible.
Selene crossed her arms. "So if we can't stop it, what's the point?"
The hooded figure turned fully toward Caius.
And when they spoke, the layered voices seemed to focus, forming one singular message.
"You do not have to stop it."
Caius blinked. "What?"
"You only have to break free."
The words settled heavily between them.
The black stone beneath them pulsed again. The shadows shifted. The distant presence of the Watcher did not move—did not chase—but it did not need to.
Because now, Caius understood.
It had already set its plans in motion. It had already won.
Unless—
Unless he did what no Timeborn had ever done before.
Unless he found a way to step beyond time itself.
The hooded figure raised a hand. The air around them fractured, reality bending like glass under strain.
Selene tensed. "Caius—"
A force tore through them.
The city of shadows, the broken skyline, the pulsing streets—everything shattered into light.
Caius gasped, his lungs burning.
He collapsed to the cold stone of a familiar rooftop, the harsh scent of Evernight's rain-soaked streets filling his senses.
Selene fell beside him, coughing violently.
They were back.
But something was wrong.
Because below them, in the streets of Evernight—
The war had already begun.
Flames raged. Metal clashed. The screams of battle echoed through the night. The rebel forces clashed with the Hollow Legion below, bodies falling amidst the chaos.
Selene scrambled to her feet. "What the—? We were gone for minutes—minutes!"
Caius's blood ran cold.
No.
Not minutes.
The Veil had played with time.
They had been gone for days.
And now, the battle for Evernight had already started.
Caius clenched his fists, his mind racing.
The war had begun without them.
And the Watcher was still watching.
Time was no longer on their side.