Cade hated secret passages, mainly because there weren’t many ways to get out if things went wrong.

  And for whatever reason, things usually went very wrong.

  As Joy led Cade and his crew through a hidden corridor in the back of The Broken Horn, all he could think of was how poorly maintained these sorts of hallways were. He bitterly took in the narrow and damp walls of the tunnel. Bunny, perched on Rayka’s shoulder this time, growled softly at the shadows.

  It was like they were caught in the gullet of one of the ancient Progenitors—likely one of the great dragons that had been hunted during the Culling. Cade cursed under his breath as the air grew colder with each step. The faint scent of mildew interlaced with the sharp tang of metal, creating an eerie, oppressive atmosphere.

  No decoration. No finesse. Just darkness with a touch of despair.

  “Lovely place you’ve got here,” Cade said, his voice echoing slightly. “Very inviting. You should consider opening it up to the public.”

  Rayka smirked. “Yeah, I’m sure people would love the ambiance. Dark, damp, and dismal. Perfect for a romantic evening.”

  Jer chuckled. “I’m just glad we haven’t run into any rats yet. Though, knowing Joy, they’d probably be his pets.”

  “Watch your step. The stones can be slippery,” Joy’s voice drifted back to them, dry and humorless.

  Joy took a sharp turn and led them down a series of stairs. The steps finally bled away into a larger chamber, and Cade’s eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. Joy’s workshop was a strange amalgamation of a wizard’s potion shop and a torture chamber.

  Shelves lined the walls, filled with jars of murky liquids, preserved creatures, and ancient tomes. A large work table dominated the center of the room, covered in an array of arcane tools, spell components, and dark artifacts. Joy walked over to a ramshackle stack of scrolls and added his pile on top of it. He then hopped up and slapped a magical array set into the nearby wall and several torches around the room lit up. They illuminated several pairs of chains and manacles that hung from the ceiling, clinking softly with the movement of their entrance.

  “Nice decor,” Cade said, raising an eyebrow. “If you need help keeping partners around, though, this isn’t the way to do it.”

  Joy cursed but didn’t rise to the bait.

  “What’s that smell?” Rayka wrinkled her nose. “It’s like rotting flesh mixed with burnt herbs.”

  Jer pointed to a corner where a cauldron bubbled over a low flame. “I think it’s coming from there. Joy, do you make potions or stew people in that thing?”

  “Funny,” Joy said humorlessly. He crossed his hairy forearms across his small frame and met Cade’s steady gaze. “Now, where’s the amulet?”

  “So…About that…” Cade started, and the tension in the room became electric. “The amulet is gone. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

  Joy didn’t move or speak for a long moment, and Cade surreptitiously tapped his fingers together quickly. He didn’t have to look to know that his crew picked up on his signal. If Joy decided they weren’t worth the risk or trouble, they would be ready. Around the room, his team shuffled into positions so that they surrounded the elderly gnome.

  Finally, the black marketeer nodded slowly. “Aye, I did. How’d you know?”

  “You barely fought me on seeing it, especially after you and our old boss discussed it for so long. You knew what it was, didn’t you?” Cade leaned against a thick mahogany desk and feigned an air of detached nonchalance.

  “Just suspicions, like Hugh.” The gnome looked over his shoulders and cursed when he saw how Cade’s crew had him surrounded. “Now, everyone relax before things get… messy.” He pinned Cade with a fierce expression. “It fused to you, didn’t it?”

  It was Cade’s turn to squirm. He glanced around at his team, but ignored their looks of concern.

  Cade paused for a moment, careful not to reveal more than he already had. Joy was many things, but trustworthy was at the bottom of that list.

  “Do you have any way of controlling or extracting it?” he asked. “Maybe a dowsing device or some ritual you might know? I thought you were an expert on this sort of thing?”

  Cade knew it was the wrong thing to say the second those words slipped from his lips. Joy’s expression darkened, and his fists clenched and unclenched slowly. He turned away, stalking toward a large collection of scrolls set atop a shelf. He ruffled through them, and Cade signaled to his team to get ready for a fight.

  “They’re called Remnants,” Joy said, eyes still focused on his scrolls.

  Rayka scoffed. “Well, yeah, we know—”

  But Cade cut her off with a silent look that spoke volumes.

  They shouldn’t reveal what they knew unless absolutely necessary. If Joy discovered their deal with Scorn, he would likely kill them on principle. It wasn’t just to cover his tracks. Scorn had taken over Silfheim by force, and many of his underworld contacts were rounded up in her purge.

  Anything related to her, Joy hated.

  Joy finally turned from his collection of scrolls, carrying one of them back to the center of the room.

  “Hugh’s client never told him what it was,” Joy explained coldly. “But he’s smarter than that.”

  “Who was his client?” Cade asked.

  Joy just shrugged. “Hells if I know. All I know is that Remnant is a powerful one. The gods collect and protect them viciously. Not much is known about them—not how they’re made, nor what the gods want them for. But one thing is clear across the research we’ve done. They have direct connections to dominions.”

  Ah.

  “Fascinating,” Cade muttered.

  He rubbed his jaw as he briefly lost himself in thought. He had to proceed with caution, or he might reveal something that Joy didn’t need to know.

  “It awakened my core,” he continued. “The problem is I have no idea what dominion it’s connected to. Worse, it refuses to establish a path. It’s like it’s not even my power. The stuff is just along for the ride while burning me up inside.”

  Joy’s expression was inscrutable. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. The Remnant’s power must be simultaneously destroying and reforging your core over and over again. It’s a miracle you’re still standing.”

  The room fell silent, the gravity of Joy’s words sinking in.

  Cade’s heart pounded in his chest, but he didn’t know how to reply to that.

  “What does that mean for him?” Rayka cut in, worry etched in the deep lines of her face.

  Joy’s gaze shifted to her. “If the process ever stabilizes, his capacity to evolve his core will be unmatched. But until then, he’s essentially a ticking time bomb.”

  Jer’s eyes narrowed in the way Cade knew meant the man was about to scam someone for information.

  “What exactly is a core?” Jer asked, sounding for all the world like a bored child. “I mean, how does it work? Should he be able to just command the magic like everyone else does? Hells, like you do, Joy?”

  Joy sighed, as if the question was a burden. “Hugh really kept you lot in the dark, didn’t he?”

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  No one responded. Orro crossed his arms and glared at Joy with an unspoken warning to get on with it.

  “Fine,” the grumpy gnome said. “Look, a core is the essence of a person’s magical ability. Once awakened by a god, it’s where their power is stored and channeled. Cores can evolve, becoming stronger and allowing for more powerful magic. You can see it in the coloration of their energy.”

  Joy took in an unsteady breath and locked eyes with Cade.

  “But a core being destroyed and reforged repeatedly… It’s like trying to build a castle on quicksand. Except, instead of something discernable like a castle, it’s building something… more,” Joy said with a tinge of fear creeping into his gruff voice.

  For a few moments, no one spoke, and Joy stared down at his scroll.

  “Nice,” Cade said, not bothering to mask his sarcasm. “I love ominous statements followed by silence. See, I can do it too: We’re all going to die, and I’ll take you with me if I have to.”

  Standing there in that gods-damned chamber, the sense of exposure only got worse.

  Cade exchanged glances with his team, the tension in the room thickening. The sounds of clinking chains and bubbling potions was louder in the silence that blanketed their thoughts.

  “Let me see if I have what I need on-hand to take that shard of divinity you absorbed out of you,” Joy muttered before he trudged over to a large stack of scrolls bound in iron and silver.

  Bunny and Rayka looked at each other in unison, and she nervously scratched the little dragonling’s chin as he rested on her shoulder.

  She bit her lip, worry etched on her face, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Do you really think he can extract it? I mean, he said it’s in your core, or is your core, or something like that.”

  Cade shrugged, his voice quiet enough that Joy couldn’t hear. “If anyone can figure this out, it’s Joy. He’s a miserable bastard, but he’s smart.”

  “Why take it out?” Elena asked under her breath.

  She leaned against one of the thick pillars composed of weathered bricks, arms folded loosely over her chest. Her bright red hair shadowed her face as she thought aloud.

  “I mean, we went through all the trouble of getting the blasted thing,” Elena continued. “If Scorn wanted to give it to one of her most faithful servants, then it must be powerful. Why can’t we keep the treasure this time?”

  “Because it’s like Joy said: it’s a bomb waiting to go off,” Orro spoke up sharply. His left palm rolled over the circular pommel of his blade, betraying his concern.

  Elena shrugged. “But if you managed to control it, we’d be unstoppable. Why go through the trouble of planning a heist when you can just blow up the front doors?”

  Jer and Rayka chuckled, but the sound felt forced in the underground room.

  Cade shook his head slowly and addressed his crew. “We’ve discussed this already.”

  “Fine, but I still think you should keep it,” Elena grumbled. “Power like that doesn’t just drop into your lap every day.”

  “You’re right.” Cade’s words were laced with more bitterness than he expected. “It usually explodes into your chest and nearly kills you and everyone you love.”

  Before Elena or anyone else could reply, Joy returned, a dark frown on his face. The half-gnome unraveled a long parchment onto the ground and pressed a rune drawn onto the top left corner of the paper. It glowed with a malevolent indigo light. The light coalesced into several magical strands, and they shot around in intricate patterns. Within a few heartbeats, a ritual circle was formed.

  Joy met Cade’s eyes. “I can get the Remnant out of you. But it’s going to cost you. Upfront,” the half-gnome told them coolly.

  “Why upfront, you bastard?!” Elena demanded.

  “Because you’re not going to find anyone else willing to do this,” the gnome said, his tone brooked no room for debate. “Now, fork over all that gold you said you have.”

  No one moved, and Cade’s team all narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

  “Hey, I’m putting my neck on the line too,” the gnome insisted. “Whatever dominion that Remnant has, it has to be extremely powerful to act like…that. One false move on my end and I die with Hugh’s old student over there. Money, now.”

  He held out his hand expectantly.

  The others looked to Cade, and he eventually nodded solemnly. Elena cursed in several languages under her breath but handed over what coins they had. Most of them, at least, if Cade was watching properly.

  Joy pocketed the coins—a variety of coppers, silvers, and a few gold—then sauntered inside the ritual circle where an empty section was designed for him to stand.

  “Good, now everyone back up.” When none of them moved immediately, he waved his hands “C’mon. Git!”

  Grumbling, most of them walked toward the edges of the large underground chamber.

  “Now or never,” Cade said under his breath.

  Cautiously, Cade entered the center of the ritual. He immediately felt a strange tingle as he crossed the etched boundary. Joy began to chant, his voice low and resonant, as shadows swirled around him. The darkness coalesced into a shimmering array of magical symbols, forming a lattice around Cade.

  Tendrils of indigo energy coiled into rippling braids of power. They formed tight ropes that writhed around the ritual circle like vipers preparing to strike.

  The magic inside Cade roared in defiance. Heat swam through his veins as the chanting reached a crescendo, and Joy Dawnbringer’s shadows thickened with dark magic.

  Then, without warning, the cords of Joy’s power pierced inside his body. They lanced into every joint, every pore of his body.

  It hit him, then—this wasn’t an operation to retrieve the Remnant.

  This was an execution.

  Orro shouted something but Cade couldn’t hear him past the roaring in his ears. The world around Cade faded.

  He felt a pull at something inside of him, as if a force deep inside him was being drawn to the surface. He gritted his teeth, trying to stay still despite the intense discomfort.

  Whatever ritual Joy was performing, it laid his innermost soul bare, and he hated every second of it. The energy around him intensified and wind swirled over his legs and feet. The torches far above glowed brighter.

  His magic writhed in defiance at the probing dark tendrils inside his veins. He could feel Joy’s spell test the boundaries of that roiling mass of energy inside him. One tendril guided by the half-gnome gingerly touched the edge of the Remnant’s domain inside him.

  It reacted in an instant. It yanked on the shadowy finger and burned along its length. Joy shouted in pain and surprise, and the probing tendril recoiled, but it was too late.

  The torches dimmed.

  Cade, however, did not.

  Flames of blues and whites erupted from his fingertips as a silent roar burst from his throat. His head rocked back as the chamber shook under his magic’s fury.

  “Feisty little bastard, aren’t you?” Joy said with a wicked laugh.

  Cade didn’t respond. He couldn’t.

  “That’s fine with me,” Joy continued. “It just means it’ll be even more satisfying to rip this from your corpse.”

  Orro bellowed again, and an orange blade smashed against the dome of the ritual’s barrier. Other daggers cut into it, but none were effective. The orange shard stabbed into the magic again and again, and a single hairline fracture spread from where its tip embedded into the spherical shield.

  “Just a little more,” Joy cooed as he navigated over a dozen shadowy tendrils into Cade’s pathways. His veins were gouged by the darkness, ripped to shreds as Joy’s ruthless control and power overwhelmed him.

  “NO.” The word burst from Cade’s lips unbidden, and yet his will boomed through that one declaration.

  He would not go down without a fight. He would not let this bastard steal his core away.

  It was his, and he would let no one else take it.

  For the first time, the Remnant’s magic bowed to his whims, raging against Joy’s invasive ritual with a ferocity that could rival the four hells and Death himself. Storms and winds and flames surged out of Cade’s veins, attacking and repelling the darkness in a single wave of impossible force.

  It burned across the magical connection between him and the black marketeer, and Joy screamed as blue flames encompassed him. He fell to his knees, writhing in agony as Cade’s uncontrolled energy swallowed him whole for his insolence.

  The ritual circle flaked and crusted for a heartbeat before fizzling into small sparks of light around them.

  The young thief’s mind cleared when little remained of the half-gnome but dust. He sagged to the side, a stone table catching his fall as exhaustion rolled through his aching bones.

  “Well, that was horrifying,” Jer said into the charred chamber.

  “We need to go,” Orro demanded. “Someone will have heard that, and Joy is too well connected to be suddenly absent from his dealings. People are going to look for who did this, and we need to be far, far, away when they do.”

  Cade’s breaths were shallow. Halting.

  He had done that. Yes, it had been a survival instinct propelling him to act, but he had just killed Joy. And that power…

  “Cade?” Orro pressed, his tone uncharacteristically soft.

  “You’re right. We need to disappear. It was a long shot anyway, getting this Remnant out of me. I think it’s time we made good on our deal with a demented goddess.” Cade rose to his feet and rolled his shoulders. “Jer, El, Ray, loot the room. We leave in one minute.”

  The three of them nodded and rushed around the chamber, grabbing whatever sparkled or shone with magical enchantments.

  Orro placed a hand on Cade’s shoulder while the others wrapped up their scavenging. “You okay? Was that… You know… The first?”

  “Yeah,” Cade admitted quietly. He could still hear Joy’s screams in the back of his mind. He met Orro’s gaze. “Any advice?”

  “Only kill the deserving. It’s when you begin to justify collateral that you know you’ve become what you hated.” Orro’s words echoed with regret.

  “Ready, boss!” Jer declared from across the circular room.

  “Let’s go to the city of trees,” Cade answered.

  However, as they exited through the tunnel, Cade couldn’t shake his true thoughts in that moment of power. When those blue flames had coursed through his veins, coming to his beck and call, destroying the gnome and rendering him to ash…

  …he had enjoyed it.

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