Angol
The maze does not want the company dead. Dead is easy, and dead is final, and the thing that built these shifting corridors has had a very long time to learn that killing a fellowship is a waste of a good fellowship.
It wants them apart.
One hallway for every fear they have never said out loud. One turn for every grudge they have been too loyal to name. The demons living in the walls do not need to lift a hand. They only need to open the right door at the right moment, and let seven people who love each other do the rest.
Kasim has led this company through a fractured empire, a forest of regret, and a mountain that nearly ate one of their own. He is about to learn that the Coil does not test what a leader can survive. It tests what he is willing to let go of to get the others out.
Not everyone reaches the far side. And the one who does not will not be lost to a monster, a blade, or bad luck. They will be lost to a choice, Kasim's choice, and there will be no heartbeat left over to undo it.
The Bargaining Dark is the sixth volume of The Thread That Would Not Break: the volume where the fellowship's unity is the price, and fate collects it in full.
