bChapter /bb87 /b

bHaiden /b

I’ve smelled death before. Fresh. Rotted. Burned. Torn apart in battle. I’ve seen what war does to bodies, to minds. But this? This bis /bdifferent. This bis /bsick.

bIt’s /bnot the scent of rot that makes my skin crawl. It’s the absence of life in a ce that should be sacred. The cold bthat /bclings to the air even though the sun beats down overhead. The way the birds stopped singing. Levi and I follow the pull bof /bmagic through the overgrown brush. bIt’s /bstronger here, denserb, /blike msses dragging through my veins. Then we find it. A shallow dip in the earth. No stones. No markers. Just a circle of bdead /bgrass and a ring of ckened trees.

Levi drops to his knees before I can say anything. His hands are already glowing, threading through soil. I stay standing. I don’t want to kneel here. Not yet. Not until I know what I’m kneeling to.

Levi exhales hard, his bbrow /bfurrowed. “There’s… so many.”

“How many?”

He swallows. “Too manyb./bb” /b

I nod once and kneel beside him, pressing my palm to the earth. My magic reaches deep. Deeper than it should. It finds boneb. /bFabric. Cold metal cuffs. Chains. Children. Shackled in death. I clench my jaw. My throat burns, but I force myself to stay still. Then I hear…

“Help us,” she says. A girlb, /bsoft and sad. “We were the key, but she was the lock.b” /b

She. Envy. I jerk back, blinking hard.

“Did you hear that?” I ask Levi.

He nods slowly. “They were part of the spell. This was… a sacrifice for the spellb./bb” /b

”

That’s when I see it, carved into the base of a tree at the edge bof /bthe clearingb. /bAn ancient rune. bI /brise and move toward itb, /bbrushing moss away to reveal the full symbol. I’ve only seen it once before. What Envy showed us in her memories, beneath the packhouse. On the stone floor of the chamber, where they nearly turned Envy into something monstrous. I trace the linesb, /bfeeling the static rise under my fingers.

“Marcus,” bI /bsayb, /bvoice low. “He perfected something here. This was a testing ground.”

“For what?” Levi asks.

“For powerb,/b” I answer. “For bringing down bthe /bveil.b” /b

The breeze shifts. A low hum rolls through bthe /bair. The bspell /bhere never died. It’s dormant. Slumbering. But it feels usb. /b

Levi turns to me. “We need to mark this siteb. /bGet Elira and Madra hereb. /bbMaybe /beven Felix.”

I shake my head. “Not yetb./bb” /b

“Haidenb…/b”

“I want to know what they were doing first. I want to see it. I want to understand it.”

He hesitates. “You want to understand Marcus?”

“No,” I whisper, staring into the heart of the grave, where a faint shimmer still dances across the soil like breath.

want to understand how to destroy him.”

bNoah /b

I’ve never seen her like this. Focused. Quiet. Cold in a way that has nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with purpose. Envy stands by the open map spread across the war table, her fingers tracing the familiar grooves of Tris‘ territory. Every angle ounted for. Every tunnel entrance is marked in blood–red ink. She’s not pacing. Not fidgeting. She’s a storm just before it breaks. And me? I can’t stop watching

bID /b

1:04 PM P P.

her.

“I’ll go first,” I bsay /binstead.

Her eyes snap to mine. “No.”

“Yes,” bI /breply firmly. “You’re the key to all of this. If something goes wrong…We need you alive. I’m just the distraction.”

Her re could burn down kingdoms. “You’re not just anything, Noah.”

The words settle in my chest like armor. Even nowb, /beven with all this weight pressing on us, she still fights for me.

She steps back and breathes out slowly. “We go together. And if you get caught doing something stupidly heroic, I’ll kill you myselfb./bb” /b

A smirk curls at my lips. b“/bNoted.”

I take her hand in mine and we portal to the borderline of the Tris pack.

“You nervous?” I ask as we crouch near the tree line.

“No,” she answers honestly. “I’m ready.”

I believe her. This is more than revenge for her. It’s remation. Of the children. Of herself. Of whatever future they tried to steal from her.

“Do you remember the way it felt thest time we were here?” she asks bas /bwe move, silent through the woods.

b“/bYeah,” I say. “Like the ce was breathing.”

“It still is,” she whispers. “But this time, we’re not just walking into the dark.”

“Nob?/bb” /b

She nces back at me, a wicked light in her eyesb. /b

“This time, we bring the fire.”

I grin. iThat’s /iimy /iigirl/ii. /i

D

i“/iShe’s iamazing/ii,/i” Hawk btells /bmeb, /band I know it; she is. She’s been amazing since the day I first saw her. When she held that de to Haiden’s throat without mercy. When she left bus /bin the dust, forcing us to do betterb, /bto be better. I think, with this girl by my side, bwe’ll /balways try to be the best versions of ourselves. Because that was love is rightb? /bFixing yourself, trying every fucking day to please them, to make them proud, to make them want to love you. Not because fate told you tob, /bbut because you want to. Fate blessed me, blessed all of us with a reason to be better menb, /band I would die trying if I had tob, /bjust to be able to spend everyst breath I have with her, watching her as she braves every storm thrown at her.

b“/bYou sure about thisb?/bb” /bI ask onest time,

She doesn’t hesitateb. /b

“Let’s finish what they started,” she says.

And together, we drop into the dark, portaling straight to where we need to beb. /bRight into the eye of the storm, for my girl, my world, my reason.

This work, Goddess of the Underworld by Sheridan Hartinb, /bis an exclusive intellectual property legally contracted with NovelSnack. Any reproduction, distribution, or upload outside NovelFlow, AnyStoriesb, /bNovGo, and Readink is unauthorized and constitutes copyright infringement

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