The altar stone burned against Selene's back like living ice.
She rolled off it with a gasp, her new claws scraping grooves in the blood-crusted surface. Cyrus slumped nearby, pressing a hand to his throat where Roran's fingers had left blackened bruises.
"We need to move," he rasped.
Selene's enhanced hearing caught the distant rumble of shifting rock...the tunnel collapse hadn't fully sealed them in. Dust sifted down from the cavern ceiling as another section gave way somewhere in the dark.
Then the bond screamed.
A wave of Kael's anguish crashed through her, so violent her vision whited out. For three heartbeats she was trapped in his body...chains cutting his wrists, his father's blade pressing over his heart, the hollow void where his power had been aching.
"Choose."
The vision shattered as Cyrus shook her. "Selene! Look."
He pointed to the altar.
Where her blood had smeared the stone, strange markings glowed to life...ancient, jagged symbols carved so deep the rock had scarred.
The same symbols that had been on her mother's dagger.
The same symbols now pulsing beneath her own skin.
Cyrus's breath hitched. "You recognize them."
It wasn't a question.
Selene touched the markings. The moment her fingers made contact...
FLASHBACK
The cavern was brighter then, torches burning in iron sconces. A younger Cyrus...maybe fourteen...kneeled before the altar, his right eye swollen shut. Alpha Orric loomed over him, gripping a sobbing woman by her hair.
Selene's mother.
"Last chance, witch," Orric snarled. "Break the curse or watch your bastard die."
Cyrus thrashed as Roran forced his hand onto the altar. "Don't do it, Ma! He'll just..."
The knife came down.
Blood sprayed. Cyrus screamed. And Selene's mother laughed as the markings flared crimson...
"Too late," she whispered. "She's already coming."
Then the torches blew out.
And something stirred in the dark.
Selene wrenched free of the vision with a gasp. The cavern spun around her, the markings now burning so bright they lit the entire chamber.
Cyrus stared at her with dawning horror. "You... you don't remember any of that, do you?"
Her claws retracted with a sickening click. "What the hell was that?"
"My initiation." Cyrus's voice was hollow. "The night the First Shadow woke. The night your mother cursed this whole damned pack."
The ground trembled. Somewhere above, the Blood Moon's power grew.
And the bond...
The bond was dying.
Kael's presence flickered like a guttering candle. Selene clutched her chest, where the tether's roots had burrowed deepest. She couldn't lose him. Not like this.
Cyrus grabbed her hand and pressed it back to the altar. "Do what she did. Finish it."
Blood Moon Dungeon
The dagger bit into Kael's skin.
A drop of blood welled, tracing the line over his heart. Orric's breath was hot and reeking of mead. "Last chance, boy."
Kael closed his eyes.
And let the bond guide him.
The Cavern
Power erupted.
Selene's scream merged with the cavern's shriek as the markings flared white-hot. The altar crumbled beneath her hands, revealing a hidden shaft descending into blackness.
A gust of putrid air sighed upward.
And from the depths, something stirred.