Chapter 18

Moving alone through the foggy Northern forest, Evangeline sneaks from Chaos’s castle to the Tower where Tiberius is imprisoned. She cuts her finger to command the Tower’s stones to open, slips past startled guards, and climbs to find Tiberius in a bleak, nearly empty prison.

Tiberius mocks her fear and her role as the key, but Evangeline offers bread and news: Apollo is alive yet cursed like the Archer. When Tiberius doubts her, Evangeline carves a message into her arm. Apollo’s reply appears on her skin—bloody warnings not to look for him and that he does not want to kill her—proving their lethal bond.

Leveraging his shock, Evangeline pleads for help to find the missing Valory stones, promising to free Tiberius and save Apollo by using a back door within the Valory’s magic. Tiberius admits he loves his brother but refuses, saying he has already mourned Apollo and that saving one life is not worth endangering the realm.

Tiberius reveals the stones have powers that call to each other and that the last time all four were united, a Great House was destroyed; he claims the reunion itself is potentially cataclysmic. He chooses to keep the Valory sealed, even if it means Evangeline dies and becomes another tragic ballad, rather than risk unleashing what lies inside.