Chapter 15 — Fractured Loyalties
The rain hadn't stopped.
Far from the forest where Kevin stumbled through mud and shadow, the three young guardians huddled in the ruins of an abandoned chapel on the city's edge. The stained-glass windows were shattered, the wooden pews cracked and splintered. Candles sputtered in corners where Mira's faint spells kept the chill at bay, but nothing could warm the three of them now.
Dante sat on the altar's steps, head buried in his hands, the green of his eyes shadowed with doubt.
Mira paced the cracked aisle, her boots splashing in rainwater that pooled on the stones. Her fiery curls were tied back, but strands still clung to her damp, pale skin.
Jareth leaned against the far wall, arms folded over his chest, his cold blue eyes fixed on nothing in particular, jaw tight with barely-contained frustration.
For a long while, none of them spoke.
At last, Mira broke the silence.
"We've lost him," she hissed through her teeth. "And when she figures that out, we're dead."
Dante looked up, his face drawn and hollow. "We couldn't stop what happened. You saw him. That thing that came out of him… nothing could have contained it."
Jareth's voice was quiet but firm. "That's not the problem. The problem is what happens when Lilith realizes we didn't even try."
They all fell silent at that, the weight of it heavy in the damp air.
Because the truth was: they hadn't tried.
They'd let Kevin go.
It was their plan all along — to let his power awaken, to let him slip through Lilith's fingers.
To buy him time.
But now… they didn't know where he was.
Dante finally spoke again, voice bitter. "Do you think he even realizes what we've done for him? Does he even care? Or is he just going to become the thing she wants anyway?"
Mira stopped pacing, turning toward him with blazing eyes.
"He has to make it. Do you hear me? He has to. Otherwise all of this — all the blood, all the lies — it's worthless."
Jareth finally pushed himself off the wall, stepping forward into the faint candlelight. His jaw was tight, but his voice was steady.
"We find him before she does. We finish what we started."
The three exchanged a grim nod, their unspoken pact renewed in the ruined chapel.
Elsewhere…
Lilith stood alone at the heart of the destroyed safehouse, the nobles already dismissed. The rain dripped through the splintered beams above, but she didn't move, her gaze fixed on the bloodstains smeared across the floor.
Her fingers traced the jagged marks where Kevin's awakening had scarred the wood and stone.
Her expression was calm — too calm.
Behind her, faint footsteps approached.
Victor Marek stopped in the doorway, his scarred jaw tight with unease.
"Mother," he said carefully. "The trail is cold already. The boy's power burns too bright — it clouds everything. The others believe it is only his awakening, but…"
Lilith's voice cut through the silence, low and dangerous.
"But it isn't just his awakening," she finished for him, her dark eyes narrowing.
Victor lowered his gaze in deference.
She straightened, her coat brushing the debris as she turned to face him fully.
"They're hiding him," she said, her tone like a blade drawn from its sheath.
Victor hesitated. "…The guardians?"
A grim smile curved her lips.
"They think they're clever. They think I don't see their little rebellion."
She stepped closer to Victor, her presence towering despite her stillness.
"They forget," she murmured, "who made them."
Victor remained silent, though his crimson eyes glimmered with something close to fear.
Lilith turned back toward the doorway, her voice colder now.
"They'll run to him. Because they still believe he can be saved."
Her eyes burned like coals as she gazed into the storm outside.
"Let them. It'll make killing all of them that much easier."