The writing on the control panel continued to burn.
Path gate preparing.
That sentence changed the air inside the room. Before the fire trap that had tried to open with Darian's voice had even fully gone out, another gate was now waking. The red light was replaced by a pale blue glow. The old seals embedded in the walls of the control room trembled one by one. The white stones trapped between the cables turned blue, as if they had remembered a name forgotten for a very long time.
Rowan's gaze did not leave the screen. Seren's body lay motionless in the image. The mark on her throat, resembling darkened moonlight, looked clearer beneath the pale light. The blue seal burning beside the body pulsed as if answering Rowan's blood.
The woman's voice spoke again.
"Rowan, you did not open the path."
Rowan's jaw tightened. "This is not Seren."
