Chapter 11 · The Gatekeeper's Lie

The voice came out wrong.

Cole knew his mentor's voice. He'd heard it every day for six years. Haleon didn't sound like that—flat, empty, like someone reading words off a wall. But it was his pitch. His rhythm. The way he'd pause before saying a name, like he was tasting it first.

"Stop." Cole's hand was already burning. The spell half-formed, heat licking up his wrist. "Don't use his voice."

The Taker didn't move. It stood in the center of the ruined temple, that shifting not-shape that hurt to look at directly, and when it spoke again the voice was still Haleon's. "You wanted to know why he died."

"I said stop."

"He died because he built this." The shadow gestured, slow, and the motion left trails in the air. Dark smears that didn't fade. "He bound me here. Twenty-three years ago. He and four others. They thought they were saving the world."

Ivy's hand closed on Cole's shoulder. Her fingers dug in, hard enough to hurt. He didn't look at her. Couldn't. If he looked away from the Taker for even a second—

"You're lying," he said.

The Taker tilted what might have been a head. "I don't lie.