Liam didn't remember moving.
One moment he was standing in the throne room, staring at Zara's devastated expression. The next, he was Phase Shifting through corridors with a speed that should have been impossible, Essence burning through his system like acid, every fragment of his being focused on a single destination.
The western wing.
Where he'd left her.
Where three heroes were—
No. Don't think it. Don't accept it.
He burst through the hole Lilith had created earlier and found carnage.
The grand hall was destroyed. Walls cracked and crumbling. The floor cratered in multiple places. Scorch marks from divine fire mixed with demonic blood splattered across every surface.
And in the center of it all, Lilith.
She was on her knees, her black armor shattered, golden blood—demon royalty bled gold—pooling beneath her. One arm hung at an unnatural angle. Her breathing was shallow, labored.
But she was alive.
