The darkness peeled away from Cassian like he'd been dredged up from the bottom of a lake. Heavy, suffocating, clinging to his bones even as it withdrew. His lungs burned as he dragged in a shaky breath, as if he'd forgotten what air tasted like. His eyes fluttered open, unfocused, darting fast, left, right, up, searching the shadows with frantic anticipation, half expecting them to swarm him again, to crawl back beneath his skin and take root.
Instead, the first thing he woke to was sound.
Human voices. Sharp ones.
"A move," Kael warned, his tone a cold blade drawn from ice, "and I swear…"
"Kael," Leira hissed, a sharp whisper that somehow held more weight than a shout. "Just…wait."
Cassian blinked until the shapes before him sharpened. The abandoned outpost came into focus, the cracked stone walls, the moss creeping like veins along the floor, the dim firelight that tried and failed to warm the frozen room. His vision steadied, and there they were:
Kael, tense like a bow pulled back to breaking.
Leira, standing between them like a barrier carved out of resolve and exhaustion.
Kael held a dagger loosely at his side. Not raised… but ready. Always ready. The fire cast shadows across his bare chest, the bandages wrapped around it stark and white, the pain behind his eyes poorly masked. He looked as if the last twenty four hours had carved five years into his face.
Leira… looked worse.
Her shoulders were stiff, arms crossed tightly, jaw set with a quiet fury she was barely containing. She'd been shaken, deeply, violently shaken, but she was forcing herself to appear unbreakable.
Cassian swallowed, his throat raw. "Where…"
"Don't." Kael's voice was a hiss. "Don't ask questions, like you deserve to be here."
Cassian grimaced, trying to push himself up. His entire body shook, from the collapse, from the screaming inside him, from the shadows still clawing at the edges of his mind.
"I didn't come to fight," he said hoarsely. "I came to…"
"You shouldn't be here at all," Leira cut in, sharper than a blade. The words were precise, merciless, each one landing with cold and unyielding cruelty.
Cassian flinched, but he didn't drop his gaze.
"I had to come."
"No, you didn't." Her eyes were icy. "You made the choice to."
"I didn't have a choice," he rasped. "The shadows… the voices… they haven't stopped since…"
He hesitated.
But Leira didn't. "Since what? Since you slaughtered innocents? Since you hunted me? Since you helped the Keepers kill every version of me they could find?"
Kael exhaled hard, ready to jump in, ready to cut Cassian down himself.
Cassian's voice barely held. "They keep whispering, Leira. Pulling. I can't shut them out." His fingers trembled as he pressed a hand to his head. "I thought…" His voice cracked. "I thought maybe you could help."
Leira's jaw clenched so hard it could have shattered. "You thought wrong."
He looked at her like a dying man begging someone to stop watching him drown. "Leira, please…"
"No."
The word hit harder than any strike. She stepped closer, her eyes burning with years, lifetimes, of betrayal.
"You killed me," she said quietly. "Not once. Not twice. COUNTLESS times. You chased me across lifetimes. You betrayed me. You destroyed every life I tried to build." Her voice trembled, not with weakness, but with the weight of the memories. "You don't get to come here asking anything from me."
Cassian's throat bobbed. His voice was barely a whisper. " That wasn't me…I wasn't in control."
Kael scoffed. "Convenient."
Cassian snapped, voice cracking like glass under pressure.
"The shadows… their voices… they've been clawing back into my mind since the Citadel. Since you touched me." His gaze locked onto Leira. "You did something to me there. You pulled them out. But it was temporary. And now… now they want back in."
Leira's stomach twisted. The memory flashed through her: the dark chamber below the water, the black all around, his screams echoing, his eyes turning bottomless.
She shoved the memory away violently.
"That doesn't erase what you did." Her voice was steel. "You are a murderer, Cassian. A monster."
Cassian's voice was hollow. "I know."
For the first time… there was no defensiveness in him. No argument. Just devastation. Tired, shattered devastation.
"Do you think they let me forget any of it?" he whispered. "You think a moment went by that they didn't show me what I have done to you, over and over again?"
Leira's eyes flickered. Just barely. Enough for Cassian to see it. Enough for him to push.
"I need you," he said, breath wobbling. "I need you to quiet them. Please."
Kael surged forward. "Absolutely not. You are not using her again. Not as a weapon, not as a…"
"Kael," Cassian snapped, "I am not talking to you, I'm talking to Leira."
"And I'm talking to you…"
Leira slammed her hand against Kael's chest, stopping him instantly.
"We're not doing this," she said sharply. "Cassian, you need to go. Now."
Cassian forced himself upright, swaying. "If I leave now, I won't last an hour. They'll get back in my head. They'll use me again. And next time… there might not be anything left of me."
"That is not my problem," Leira muttered.
But when she turned away, Cassian's next words froze the room.
"I can help you take them down."
Silence crashed over them. The fire crackled. Kael's jaw flexed in disbelief and fury. Leira's pulse stopped altogether.
Cassian continued, voice trembling. "I know things. Things the shadows whispered. Places the Keepers use. Weak points. And…" He swallowed. "A way to weaken them."
Inside Leira, something ancient stirred. A cold rush. A whisper:
"Wait."
The Veil. Its voice slid through her bones like a blade dipped in frost.
Leira whispered, "No." Not to Cassian. To the thing inside her. "No. I don't need him."
"Listen Keeper."
The Veil's voice was a command, not a suggestion.
"If he knows something, then he can be useful."
Leira gritted her teeth. "I said no."
But the Veil didn't care.
Light swelled in her eyes, silver, shimmering, unnatural. Her spine straightened. Her breath stilled.
When she spoke, her voice layered, hers and not hers.
"Stop."
Cassian froze instantly.
Kael's eyes widened. "Leira? Leira…"
But she wasn't fully Leira anymore.
"How can you help us?" the Veil asked through her.
Every word resonated like a ripple through the air.
Cassian exhaled shakily. "There's a place… the Keepers used it long ago. The Ritual Grounds."
Kael cursed under his breath. "Absolutely not. That place is forbidden."
Cassian lifted his chin. "Forbidden because it holds inscriptions and relics powerful enough to weaken the shadows. Maybe even the Keepers themselves."
Leira blinked, herself again. The light dimmed.
"Explain," she demanded.
Cassian nodded once. "The shadows aren't fully bound. They're strong, yes, but not unbreakable. The old relics were created to keep them imprisoned. If we get there, if you access them… they weaken." He met her eyes. "And when the shadows weaken… the Keepers lose their control."
Silence again.
Then…
Light spilled from Leira's fingertips, her hands moving gently, almost like she was playing an invisible piano. With every motion, the noise in Cassian's mind unraveled, thread by thread. He stiffened, inhaling sharply as the whispering inside him dulled to a faint murmur. His eyes widened in startled relief.
Leira had looked away, deliberately, but the Veil pulsed faintly through her and he could feel it.
Silence settled between them.
Finally, Leira stepped back, crossing her arms again. "Kael," she said softly. "Come with me."
They moved to the far corner of the room. Kael pressed a hand against the cracked wall, jaw tight. "We cannot trust him."
"I know that."
"Leira," he breathed, turning to face her. The flicker of the firelight softened the hard edges of his expression. "I have spent centuries, CENTURIES, trying to protect you from him. Watching him break you. Watching him manipulate you. Watching him kill you." His voice broke. "You can't ask me to work with him."
She swallowed hard. "I'm not asking you to trust him. I'm asking you to trust me. The Veil says we need his help. If this gives us even the smallest chance of surviving this, of ending this, then we have to take it."
Kael's shoulders slumped with pain. He took a slow breath, then nodded, barely. "Fine. But I'm not taking my eyes off him."
"I know."
They returned to Cassian. Leira stared at him, her voice cool and steady.
"Fine. If you say you can help us, then we'll use you." She stepped closer until she was only inches from him. "But if you make one wrong move, Cassian… just one… I will end you myself."
Cassian met her gaze head on. "I understand, thank you."
"Don't thank me," Leira snapped. "This is strictly for the mission."
"And that mission," Cassian said, "requires that you and I leave immediately."
Kael stepped between them. "Absolutely not. Leira is not going anywhere with you."
Cassian's temper flared. "You're injured. You can barely stand. And time is working against us. The shadows get stronger at nightfall. The sooner we reach the Ritual Grounds, the better."
Kael bristled. "Leira is not leaving my sight."
"We don't need all three of us," Cassian countered. "Just her."
"The hell we don't." Kael stepped forward, voice low and dangerous. "I see exactly what you're doing. This is some kind of trick, isn't it?"
Cassian let out a breath; tired, impatient, sharp. His gaze locked on Kael. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm talking about you," Kael snarled. "You think I'm going to let Leira go anywhere with you? You think you can show up here, feed us some fabricated story, and we'll just believe you?"
"I don't care about your belief," Cassian snapped. "And frankly, I don't know why you think you get a voice in this conversation. I'm speaking to the Keeper…" his eyes flicked to Leira, then back to Kael, "…not her glorified errand boy."
Kael moved before he even realized it, fists curling, nostrils flaring. "Say that again."
"That's enough!" Leira's voice cracked like a whip as she stepped firmly between them. "Both of you. Stop."
They glared at each other but fell silent.
Leira turned to Cassian first. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're right that time matters. But I'm not leaving without Kael."
"Then you're wasting precious hours," Cassian said. "We don't have many."
"Then we wait," she retorted. "Or you leave. Your choice."
Cassian clenched his jaw. "You're making a mistake. The first part of the journey isn't long. It's just preparation. A calibration ritual to access the relics safely. We will be back in less than three days."
Kael barked out, "No. Because she is not going anywhere with you."
Cassian's eyes flashed with impatience. "If we don't start now…"
"ENOUGH!" Leira cut across both their voices like a blade. Her breath trembled, her decision weighing heavily on her shoulders. But the Veil pulsed through her veins, steady and insistent.
Her hands trembled at her sides. Her heart hammered.
She didn't want this. Didn't want Cassian. Didn't want the Veil's insistence. Didn't want the history clawing its way up her throat.
But the Veil pulsed harder. Firm. Unyielding.
She inhaled slowly and turned toward Cassian.
Her voice was calm. Resolved.
"Fine," she said. "We'll do it."
Cassian's eyes widened in disbelief—hope flickering like a dying candle trying to catch flame.
Kael stared at her as if she'd just stabbed him.
"No," Kael said, voice rough. "Leira, no. You can't trust anything he's saying. You can't…"
"I'm not trusting him," she said quietly. "I'm using him."
Kael's jaw flexed. "It's the same thing."
"It's not."
Cassian watched them with something like awe, broken, trembling awe, like he couldn't believe she'd agreed.
Her eyes hardened. "We leave at sundown."
Kael looked betrayed. Cassian looked saved.
And Leira looked like someone walking willingly into the mouth of a storm. Outside, the wind howled, rattling the broken windows like bones.
Inside her chest, the Veil pulsed once, satisfied.
It had gotten what it wanted.
But Leira… wasn't sure she had.