I didn't stay at the Lingering Afterglow.
The chaos was too much—everything slipping through my fingers like fog. The last thing I needed was more noise. Devyn's attack had shattered any semblance of control I once had.
There was no time for networking, no time for idle chatter. No time to figure out more about Roulette. She hadn't seemed to recall anything from our encounter. Devyn must've done a number on her mind.
I'd known there was something about her voice—something ancient—but that could wait.
I had to find Devyn. And fast.
Dark magic trails lingered like scorched footprints in the wind. The scent of decay clung to the air—sharp, acrid—a stark reminder of how quickly things could fall apart. Time was running out.
I turned into mist, spreading through the city like a shadow, slipping through cracks in reality, an unseen presence. My senses sharpened as I swept through every corner, searching for signs. But something was wrong. My instincts screamed at me.
The new Elimination Company office loomed ahead—dark and silent. The place where Gerlyn had just begun her new chapter—this supposed haven of protection—was now a tomb. The lights were off, the windows swallowed in shadow.
If there was dark magic here, it was throbbing.
The security system had malfunctioned. The gate creaked open like a relic, rusted by time and negligence. It felt absurd—no, frustrating. The Elimination Company, meant to handle threats like Devyn, was unraveling at the seams.
I stepped inside. Shadows spilled from beneath the gate, pooling at my feet like a warning.
The trail led deeper into the building. Each step grew heavier, the air more suffocating. A metallic tang clung to the back of my throat, and the very walls seemed to hold their breath. It felt like walking through the memory of a nightmare.
At the reception desk, a woman sat motionless. Her eyes were pitch-black, staring into a void I couldn't see.
A chill crawled down my spine.
This was Devyn's work.
Mist coiled around my hands as I followed the faint traces of his magic. They pulled me down a corridor and into a room.
Staff members lay unconscious outside a shattered door, bodies crumpled like marionettes dropped mid-dance. Not unconscious—struck down. It had happened in seconds. Inside, the air crackled. Magic pulsed through the space like a second heartbeat.
I froze at the sight of a manual nailed to the door—yellowed with age, its pages curled and brittle. The title mocked me: How to Travel to Lost Places.
Beside it, a blinking screen stuttered green light, like a dying heartbeat:
Location: Mystique Island, Year: 1900.
My stomach dropped.
A portal room?
Had Devyn already gone through?
Mystique Island. The prison world. One I had made. Built from my own darkness. It was supposed to contain monsters. Now it was opening again.
Was I supposed to follow?
I hesitated.
Yes, the emerald was there. But so was danger. Far too much of it.
Then it hit me—Gerlyn. The Light Guardian. If she was still here, the reality-altering spell wouldn't function. It required her.
I looked to the nearby table. Papers were scattered, hastily abandoned. One caught my eye: Gerlyn's calendar. A mission was scheduled—Mystique Island, 1900s.
Another pile was marked Devyn – The Destroyer. Diagrams, spells, targets, obsessions. His reach had been deep. Even here. Even this place.
Gerlyn had been sent to Mystique Island. A test mission, likely. She was showing promise, and I'd ensured she would. I could've sabotaged her—held her back. But I didn't.
She was meant to rise.
To stand beside Andrea.
And now she had no idea what she was walking into.
Frustration surged through me. Devyn wasn't just powerful—he was cunning. He used everything, even the Company's own systems, to manipulate us.
I looked again at the swirling portal.
Gerlyn was already inside. Devyn too, no doubt. And the emerald.
Mystique Island. A cursed world, filled with monsters. And 1900? Even worse. I knew what I'd sealed away there.
A Djinn stalked those lands—a creature that fed on fear. I'd imprisoned it long ago. But what else had slipped in since? Others like Roulette?
And Rusulska.
A siren I'd exiled there a decade ago—a deranged mermaid who called herself a guardian. She drowned anyone who got too close. If she found the emerald...
It would be over.
Elis. Gerlyn. Devyn. The emerald.
All scattered. All vulnerable. And the monsters... they had their own plans.
I had no intention of returning. That place was meant to stay buried. But the stakes had shifted.
Sommerville was no longer safe.
Suddenly, movement behind me.
The staff began to stir—groggy, dazed. Their eyes flickered open, confusion etched into every face.
But it wasn't just sleep they'd been under.
They were blank.
One woman blinked at the darkness. "Who turned off the lights?"
Another frowned. "Where's the file I was working on...? Ugh, I'll have to redo everything..."
They'd forgotten.
Forgotten everything Devyn had done.
A cold dread spread through me. He didn't just control minds—he erased them. Wiped them clean like chalk from a board.
I shifted into smoke, sliding past them unnoticed, slipping toward the portal pulsing in the center of the room.
No more time to think.
I leapt through the veil of darkness.
The world swallowed me.
Then, voices behind me:
"Hey, has Gerlyn left for Mystique Island in 1900 yet?"
"Yeah, the machine's still on."
"Strange..."
Then—
Nothing.
Oblivion.
A cold shiver traced my spine. Something was wrong. I could feel it in the current of magic. I tried to focus—
But my vision blurred.
Senses dulled.
The world collapsed into darkness.