The bone throne exploded in a hail of splintered fragments.
Selene threw herself over Cyrus as shards rained down, her shadow-armor hardening into jagged spikes to deflect the worst of it. Roran's howl of rage shook the chamber, his form flickering between human and something far worse...his jaw unhinging, his ribs splitting open beneath his skin like a grotesque chrysalis.
Cyrus spat blood, gripping her wrist. "The markings...on your arms..."
She looked down. The ancient symbols from the altar now burned black against her skin, pulsing in time with the weakening bond. Kael's final gift was fading fast, the borrowed power ebbing with every heartbeat.
Across the chamber, the herald wailed, its faceless head whipping toward the crumbling throne. "No no NO! You ruin everything!" It lunged...not at them, but at Roran, its elongated fingers sinking into his chest. "She comes! You must be READY!"
Roran's scream wasn't human.
His body contorted, bones snapping and reforming as the herald's essence poured into him. Blue light erupted from his mouth, his eyes, the gaps between his ribs...
Cyrus yanked Selene backward. "Move!"
The ground beneath the throne gave way with a thunderous crack, revealing a yawning pit. A stench like rotting lilies and old blood billowed upward, making Selene's eyes water.
Then...
A hand.
Pale and skeletal, its fingers too long, its nails curved like talons, gripping the edge of the pit.
"At last."
The voice slithered into Selene's skull, bypassing her ears entirely. The bond shrieked in response, the last remnants of Kael's presence recoiling in primal terror.
Cyrus shoved her toward a narrow fissure in the wall. "There! Go!"
She dug in her heels. "Not without you!"
His one good eye burned with desperation. "I'm the only thing that can slow her down." He ripped open his tunic, revealing a matching set of markings carved into his chest...fresh and weeping. "Your mother's last gift."
The herald spun toward them with a shriek. "LIAR! TRAITOR!"
Cyrus didn't flinch. "Tell Kael... he was right about me."
Then he charged.
Blood Moon Dungeon
Kael's chains snapped.
Orric staggered back as his son rose, the hollow void in his chest burning with stolen shadow. The dagger fell from the Alpha's grip as Kael's hands...now tipped with obsidian claws...closed around his throat.
"You should have killed me," Kael whispered.
The bond was nearly gone. But in its final flickers, he felt it...Selene's terror, her grief, her rage. And beneath it all...
A whisper of something older.
Something hungry.
The Fissure
Selene ran until her lungs screamed.
The tunnel twisted upward, the air growing thicker with every step. The markings on her arms blazed hotter, as if reacting to the thing clawing its way out of the pit behind her.
Then...
Light.
She burst onto a ledge overlooking Blood Moon territory, the keep's towers silhouetted against the night sky. The Blood Moon hung swollen and red, its light painting the world in shades of violence.
And in the distance...
A howl.
Not of wolves.
Not, of anything natural.
The First Shadow was free.