The Guardian's words haunted me as I stood at the entrance to the Thorne family crypt. "One Thorne may still need to remain as its eternal jailer." The thought of either Alaric or myself trapped forever in some otherworldly prison made my heart constrict painfully.
"Isabella." Alaric's voice pulled me from my dark thoughts. He stood beside me, Serpent's Bane gleaming at his hip, its light illuminating the ancient stonework of the crypt entrance. "We don't know what awaits us, but whatever comes, we face it together."
I nodded, grateful for his strength even as I feared for his fate—for both our fates. Since the reforging of the blade, my pendant had pulsed with increasing urgency, growing warmer against my skin each hour. It was leading us here, to the deepest chamber beneath Thorne Manor.
"The stone knows," I said softly, touching the pendant. "It's been calling to me, showing me glimpses of a doorway hidden beneath your ancestral home."
