The night had grown colder, and the streets of Kallzara were nearly empty.
Cassie pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she moved quickly down the winding alleys behind the Golden Pig. Her boots echoed on the damp stone, the only sound besides her own breath.
He's not at the tavern. He's not at the barn. He wouldn't just disappear like this.
Worry gnawed at the edges of her mind, pushing aside the hunger still twisting in her stomach.
"Revan," she whispered under her breath, hoping the name might somehow draw him out of the shadows.
Nothing.
Then—movement.
A faint flicker near a torch. Not a person, but a shadow… stretching just a little too far.
Cassie froze. Her heart beat faster. That wasn't Revan's magic. She knew his patterns—this felt wrong.
But it's a start.
She crouched, fingers brushing the frost-crusted pouch at her side, where Heidi's crystal was tucked safely inside.
A soft blue light pulsed faintly from it—reacting.
"Shadow magic," she whispered. "And recent."
Without hesitation, she followed the trail deeper into the city's underbelly, past the market stalls and into the older quarter—where the stones were cracked and the air smelled of mildew and rust.
She didn't know what she'd find. But if Revan was in trouble, she'd tear the whole damn city apart to get him back.
Revan's gaze stayed locked on the empty space beside the man's boots.
No shadow.
Not even a flicker.
The candlelight danced on the stone floor, casting shadows from the table, the chains, even Revan himself—but nothing trailed beneath the man.
What the hell are you?
"You noticed," the man said calmly, following Revan's stare. "Took you long enough."
He paced a slow circle around Revan, his boots whispering over the floor.
"There are many things the Church of the Flame calls heresy. Shadowcraft is one. Necromancy, another. But there's a third…" He stopped just behind Revan, voice lowering to a near whisper. "Transference."
Revan blinked, sweat stinging his eyes. "The hell does that mean?"
The man leaned forward until Revan could feel the cold of him—not just in the air, but deep, under the skin.
"It means," the man said softly, "that I gave mine up."
A pause.
"My shadow. My soul. All of it—traded, years ago, for something greater."
Revan tried to pull away, but the ropes held firm.
"You're insane," he spat, more to keep his fear at bay than anything else.
The man chuckled, low and humorless. "Maybe. But insanity tends to open the right doors."
He circled back in front of Revan, crouching so they were eye to eye.
"That book you found—my book—it was never meant for gutter rats and street thieves. And whoever helped you unlock it... they've made a dangerous mistake."
Cassie moved deeper into the older quarter of Kallzara, where the buildings leaned too close and the streets narrowed like the throat of a trap.
The frost-crusted crystal in her pouch pulsed again—brighter this time.
She paused at a fork in the alleyway. One path led toward the docks, the other to the abandoned chapel ruins where only beggars and rats dared sleep.
The glow from the crystal dimmed toward the docks. Brightened toward the ruins.
Cassie turned without hesitation.
He's close. I can feel it.
As she walked, her breath curled in front of her, and the hair on her arms stood on end.
Then she saw it—at the edge of a crumbling stone wall, a scorch mark. It looked like... impact magic. Something fast, something violent.
Revan had definitely been here.
Her fingers brushed the froststone again, and she whispered a small enchantment Heidi had taught her: "Reveal."
A faint shimmer passed over the alley, and suddenly the remnants of shadow magic lit up like ink under moonlight—twisting trails along the walls, disturbed footprints in the dust.
Someone had been dragged.
Revan.
Her throat tightened, but she shoved the fear down. She didn't have time for it.
She followed the glowing trail around the corner and came to a heavy iron door, half-sunk into the side of an old warehouse foundation. The shadows here were thick. Wrong.
Cassie drew in a breath, then whispered, "Ice Trap," feeling the spell coil beneath her skin, ready.
Hang on, Revan, she thought. I'm coming.
Revan's arms ached. His head throbbed. But it was the man's words that unsettled him most.
Gave up his soul?
Gave up his shadow?
What kind of power did that buy someone?
The shadowless man stood again, looming. "You're wondering what I am."
Revan didn't respond. Breathing hurt too much.
"I'm what you'll become," the man said. "If you keep playing with magic you don't understand."
He reached out and gently touched the side of Revan's face—mocking, slow. Revan flinched.