Leira froze mid-step, her boot hovering above the scorched earth.
"What?" she asked carefully. "What's here?"
Cassian didn't look at her. His eyes were fixed on the ground…no, beneath it…like he felt something rising through the soil.
"I don't know," he murmured, voice tight. "It's like…the air shifted. Like something woke up."
Leira swallowed, pulse thudding in her throat.
"Something like what? This place looks abandoned. There shouldn't be anything here."
Cassian shook his head slowly.
"No. This place…it's reacting. I can feel it."
His jaw clenched. "It's responding to something. To us."
Her heartbeat stuttered. "Us?"
He finally looked at her, not accusing, not defensive, just frightened in a way she had never seen on him.
"Leira…" His voice cracked on her name. "I think this place remembers you."
A cold shock shot through her chest.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
He took a shaky breath.
"You said Ari died here."
She stiffened.
The air suddenly pressed down around them, thickening, tightening, the atmosphere turning into invisible hands squeezing the space.
Cassian continued quietly, almost whispering:
"Whatever power was present that night… whatever exploded out of you… I don't think it vanished. I think it sank into the ground. Into the stones. Into the runes."
Her throat closed.
"So now it's reacting because I came back?"
"I think so, but…" He rubbed at his temple, like pressure was building behind his eyes again.
"But what?" she echoed.
He hesitated, guilt rolling off him so sharply she could almost taste it.
"I think it might be reacting to me too."
Leira stared. "Why would it react to you?"
His breath shuddered.
"Because every time I look at you, all I feel is what I did to you."
He lowered his head, voice raw. "And every time those memories cross my mind… the vibration gets stronger."
The runes beneath their feet pulsed once, deep red.
Leira flinched. "Cassian… stop talking."
"I'm not controlling it," he whispered.
"Then stop looking at me," she said, voice unsteady.
He turned away. "Fine… fine."
The runes pulsed again, brighter, sharper, like a heartbeat syncing with theirs.
Leira took a half step toward him without meaning to.
"No…no, wait. Don't move. Don't…"
The circle hummed, low and resonant, rising through the earth like something ancient drawing its first breath in centuries.
Cassian's eyes widened.
"Leira… I think it's feeding on us somehow."
The hum sharpened into a crackling vibration under their boots.
"It's your guilt," she said hoarsely. "It's the same feeling I had the night that she died. It's remembering."
"And rage…" he added, finally meeting her eyes again.
She whispered it back. "And rage."
The ground lit up.
The circle snapped awake and locked them in.
The light speared upward first, thin, sharp lines crawling from rune to rune like veins igniting with molten heat. Leira staggered back instinctively, but the moment her heel crossed the glowing boundary, a blast of invisible force shoved her forward again.
She hit Cassian's chest. Hard.
He caught her on reflex, but the shock of contact sent another pulse through the runes beneath them; hot, angry, vibrating like a warning snarl.
Leira jerked away. "Get off me."
Cassian didn't argue. His eyes were locked on the glowing perimeter. "It's… a barrier," he said quietly. "It won't let us cross."
"That's unsettling," she whispered. "Because it's either trying to keep something from getting in…
His throat bobbed. "…Or to keep us from getting out."
They turned at the same time toward different edges of the circle. Cassian reached the boundary first. He extended a hand, slowly, cautiously, and the moment his fingertips neared the line of light, the entire ring flared blood red.
A sound ripped through the air.
Not a chime.
Not a hum.
A deep, resonant groan, like old stone remembering pain.
Cassian recoiled as if struck. He stumbled back, clutching his hand. His knuckles were white.
"It felt…Leira, it felt like it reached into me. Like it was pulling something out of me."
"It wants to feed on your guilt," she choked.
He didn't deny it.
Leira stepped closer to test it herself, but the circle reacted before she even lifted her hand.
The light around her edge flickered, not red but a violent, blinding white.
Heat slammed into her chest, dizzying, disorienting, like the ground itself was inhaling her anger and fear.
Cassian grabbed her arm without thinking. "Stop…Leira, don't…"
The circle screamed.
The runes flashed in a rapid, violent sequence, pulsing between their colors, Cassian's red, her white, back and forth so quickly the entire ring looked like it was stuttering.
Leira spun on him, voice sharp and fraying at the edges.
"What is this??" She exhaled. "I knew this whole thing was a bad idea."
"What thing?"
She snapped. "This! All of this! Us coming here."
Cassian blinked, stunned. "I was just trying to help."
"And that always goes so well, doesn't it?" Her voice cracked. "Because if I remember correctly, the last time you tried to help me, you got me killed."
The ground jolted, hard enough to nearly knock her off her feet.
Cassian stepped into her space despite the danger, jaw tight. "You think I don't know that? You think I don't walk around every day with the weight of…"
"No…I don't," she snapped. "I think you feel bad, even guilty, but I don't think you will ever understand the pain I went through…the pain I'm currently going through right now, looking at your face. The same face that pretended to me over and over, made me feel safe, only to stab me in the back over and over again…some of the times, even literally. Do you have any idea how it feels to even be on this journey with you? Just waiting to see how you're going to try and kill me this time?"
The runes flared, both colors now, clashing like two storms colliding.
Cassian's voice rose to meet hers.
"You're right! Okay? I don't understand that. But I do understand that I have wanted to die for centuries now for the things I did to you. I don't know how to fix it, so I wanted to help. I was trying to do the right thing!"
"Cassian, look at where we are!" She threw her arm out toward the pulsing barrier. "We're trapped. And it's all because of you. Did you even care to inquire from your shadow friends about the dangers we could face here? Did you even…"
The circle reacted violently.
A column of light erupted between them, forcing them apart. Leira felt something wrench inside her chest, like a thread connecting her to the world had been yanked taut.
Cassian doubled over at the same time, gripping his ribs. "It's…Leira, it's killing us!"
A tearing force gripped them, hot, invisible, merciless.
The air thickened.
The ground shuddered.
Every breath felt stolen.
The circle was feeding on their conflict like it was starving.
Leira's knees buckled. She clutched her chest, gasping. "We…Cassian…"
He forced himself upright, face pale with pain. "We have to stop fighting." He completed.
"I don't know how," she rasped. "I don't know how to feel anything else."
"If we don't, it's going to kill us."
The light surged higher. Leira cried out as a sharp, icy sensation shot up her spine. Cassian staggered backward as though something had hooked into him, dragging.
The circle tested them next.
Cassian tried to move, and the ground flared violently at his feet, red lightning tracing his boots like veins. Every pulse of light seemed to echo his guilt, amplifying it, feeding off the tight knot of shame and self loathing that had defined him for lifetimes. He gasped, backing up.
Leira stepped toward the edge of the circle. Her rage shot through her like liquid fire, the runes flickering violently in response, white-hot flashes igniting along the cracked stones, pulling at her chest like it wanted to wrench her heart out.
"It's reacting differently to us," Cassian panted, voice strained. "My… guilt…your… anger…it's… fueling it."
The runes pulsed faster, hotter, violently red and white, scorching the air with every beat. The circle's power tore at them, invisible fingers twisting their limbs, their breath growing ragged, almost choking.
Cassian's voice wavered. "It's…it's drawing from us. From every emotion we feed it! And right now…all we're giving it is… ammunition."
Leira gasped, stepping back as if retreating would break something.
The ground shook violently, light streaking toward the sky in hot, angry arcs. Every scream of the runes threatened to tear the air, the energy vibrating in their bones, sinking into their teeth and hearts.
They stared at each other across the trembling, glowing ground…not united, not reconciled, but trapped, terrified, and shaking.
The circle pulsed again, hungry for the truth they refused to give.
And they realized, with rising terror, that until they stopped feeding it, there would be no escape.
Trapped.
Breathing hard.
Barely holding themselves together.
And very, very far from working together.