The shaft swallowed them whole.
Selene slid down the slick stone passage, her claws throwing sparks as she tried to slow her descent. Cyrus tumbled behind her, his ragged breathing echoing off the narrow walls. The air grew thicker with each yard they fell, until it felt like breathing tar.
Then...
Open space.
They spilled onto a floor of polished bones, the impact driving the breath from Selene's lungs. The chamber stretched endlessly in every direction, its curved walls pulsing with veins of bioluminescent fungus that cast everything in corpse-light blue.
And at the center...
A throne of fused skeletons.
Empty.
Cyrus groaned, clutching his ribs. "Where...?"
A whisper cut through the dark: "You're early."
Selene's shadows screamed in warning.
The faceless creature from the forest materialized before the throne...its elongated limbs unfolding like a spider's, its blank skin stretching as it smiled without a mouth.
"She's not here yet," it sighed, tilting its head. "But oh, little shadow... she's so hungry for you."
Cyrus staggered upright. "What the hell is that?"
"The First Shadow's herald," Selene breathed. The truth clicked into place...the markings, her mother's curse, Roran's transformation. "And we just walked into its parlor."
The creature laughed, the sound vibrating from its chest. "Clever girl. Pity you'll die like your mother...screaming."
Then the bones beneath their feet began to move.
Blood Moon Dungeon
Kael's blood dripped onto the straw as Orric pressed the dagger deeper.
"Pathetic," the Alpha sneered. "You'd die for a monster?"
The hollow ache in Kael's chest flared...but not with pain. With purpose.
The bond wasn't dead yet.
And Selene needed him.
With the last of his strength, Kael pulled...
The Bone Chamber
Selene's vision went white.
Power...Kael's power...flooded through the dying tether in a final, desperate surge. Her shadows erupted with new ferocity, forming jagged armor around her limbs as the bone fragments rose like a storm.
The herald shrieked, its form blurring. "NO! She's MINE!"
Cyrus grabbed Selene's arm. "The throne! Break it!"
They lunged as one.
Her claws met bone...
...just as Roran materialized from the shadows, his blue-lit eyes wild.
"MINE!" he roared.
His fist plowed into Cyrus's face.
The impact sent her brother flying into the throne. Bones shattered. The chamber shook.
And deep below, something roused.