Jace ran.
The tunnel twisted, the walls shifting like something alive. The glyphs lining the stone pulsed in time with his heartbeat, flaring gold, then sinking into a deep, wounded red.
Behind them, the Hollowed howled.
Jace risked a glance back. Shadows moved where shadows shouldn't. The creatures crawled—some along the walls, some across the ceiling, their twisted limbs bending wrong, jagged mouths splitting open in jagged grins.
They were fast. Too fast.
"Faster!" Kael snapped.
Jace gritted his teeth and pushed forward, muscles screaming. The tunnel began to narrow, the walls pressing in, forcing them into a single-file path. Kael barely fit ahead of him, her raven-feathered cloak whipping behind her as she ran.
Then—
The tunnel ended.
A dead drop.
Kael didn't slow.
"Jump!" she yelled.
Jace's stomach lurched as she leapt into the abyss.
He didn't think. He followed.
For a moment, there was nothing but weightlessness—falling through the dark, wind roaring past his ears. Then—impact.
Cold stone met his back. The force knocked the breath from his lungs. He gasped, rolling over, pushing himself up—
Kael was already moving.
Jace scrambled to his feet, blinking as his vision adjusted. They had landed on a massive stone platform, floating in an endless black expanse. A void. No sky, no ground. Just… nothingness.
Yet in the distance, something pulsed. A great, circular structure—massive, ancient, humming with a power that made Jace's mark burn.
The Cradle.
Kael took a step forward—then froze.
Jace followed her gaze.
At the platform's edge, something stood. A figure, cloaked in shadow. Still. Watching.
Then—it moved.
A single step forward.
Torchlight caught its face.
Jace's breath caught in his throat.
It had his face.
Not similar. Not almost.
His exact face, down to the scar along his jaw, the way his hair curled slightly at the ends.
His own eyes stared back at him, dark and knowing.
Kael swore under her breath. "Shit."
The Hollowed above shrieked, their voices distorting into something wrong.
The figure—his double—spoke.
"Show me your strength."
Then it lunged.
Jace barely had time to react before the thing was on him.
He raised his arms instinctively—too slow. A fist slammed into his gut, sending him sprawling across the stone. His ribs screamed.
Jace coughed, rolling over, his vision swimming.
Kael shouted something—he couldn't hear. The world had narrowed to the figure approaching him, step by step, calm, measured, eyes filled with something that wasn't human.
Jace struggled to stand. His body felt heavy, like something was pressing down on his bones.
The figure stopped inches away.
Then, in a voice that was his, it murmured—
"Try again."
The world cracked.
And everything went white.