Then I spin around and barrel down the tunnel with Morana and Khione at my side, praying that wasn’t really our last goodbye.

Winding down into the mountain, the darkness closes in on me, my ice hounds keeping close at my heels. They prowl on silent paws, their hackles raised. I have the map we found in my father’s study in my pocket, and I pull it out, banking on the fact that he took Lor this way.

It feels like it takes hours—I have no sense of the day or time buried under miles of stone—but eventually, I’m spit out into a cavern with a ceiling that soars high overhead. At the far end stands a wide opening and a tunnel beyond glowing with bright luminescent lights. I blink and shake my head because this seems impossible.

Is this really the Underworld? How could my father do this? My desire to kill him increases tenfold. I will not allow him to live after this. He has spent his entire life hating me, attempting to carve away every sliver of joy I might find. But taking Lor from me to be delivered to this devil? Some actions can be answered only with the end of a sword.

I approach slowly, and a deep-seated instinct tells me this is the end of everything. All the years and months of chasing this hazy future I’ve been imagining will come down to whatever lies beyond this doorway.

As I stand at the threshold, studying the luminescence beyond, I understand I’m about to go to a place from which I might never return. I once told Lor I’d follow her into the fires of the Underworld if that’s what it took. I never expected to mean that literally.

But I did mean it, so I won’t hesitate. This might truly be the end, but I have to try. I could never live with myself otherwise. I’d rather be dead than live in a world without her. I refuse to let her down.

“Wait here,” I tell Morana and Khione. They whine in protest, but they obey the command as I take a step, crossing into the unknown. With my sword raised at the ready, I touch the walls, my fingers coming away coated with a layer of shimmering dust. My mind spins with the sheer impossibility of all of this, but it’s here, and it’s real.

“Lor,” I whisper. “I’m coming. Hold on, my queen. My heart. My mate. I’m coming.”

With one look back over my shoulder, I take a deep breath and plunge into the tunnel, hoping there’s the slightest chance we’re ever coming back out.

CHAPTER 62

LOR