The knife's scream drowned all thought.
Selene's arm trembled as the transformed blade pulled her toward the altar like a lodestone. The fused bones glowed white-hot now, their ancient prison cracking under the Blood Moon's gaze. Through the widening gaps, shapes moved...too many limbs, too many eyes, all fragments of the First Shadow straining toward freedom.
Kael's blood still sizzled on the standing stones, the thirteen wards forming a fragile cage of crimson light around the collapsing altar. His shadows lashed toward her, but the ritual's power repelled them.
"Selene!" His voice barely reached her through the knife's wail. "Fight it!"
She was fighting.
Every muscle locked against the blade's will, her boots carving furrows in the dirt. But the First Shadow's whisper coiled through her mind, sweet and relentless:
"You were born for this. Your mother's sacrifice. Your brother's scars. All leading you here."
Cyrus staggered into her line of sight, his silver scars blazing. He gripped her shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze...one eye human, the other now fully black. "There's a third way," he rasped.
Then he shoved her toward Kael.
And turned to face the altar alone.
The Broken Vessel
Cyrus moved with unnatural speed, his scarred hands closing around two bone bars. The moment his skin touched them, the silver markings detonated...a shockwave of pure white light that shattered the ancient prison.
The First Shadow howled.
Not in triumph.
In betrayal.
"YOU!" Her voice shook the crumbling keep. "MY FIRST FAILURE!"
Cyrus's lips peeled back in a grin too fierce to be human. "Hello, Mother."
The revelation hit Selene like a physical blow. Cyrus wasn't just marked...he'd been the first attempt at a vessel. The scars weren't wounds.
They were rejections.
And now they burned with the same white fire that had saved them in the caves.
The First Shadow's form coalesced...a towering figure of smoke and starlight, her beauty terrible to behold. She reached for Cyrus with hands that had cradled civilizations into dust.
"You will not rob me again."
Cyrus didn't flinch. "Watch me."
He plunged his hands into his own chest.
And pulled.
The Sacrifice
What emerged from Cyrus's ribs wasn't blood or bone, but light...the same blinding radiance that had birthed the white fire. It struck the First Shadow like a spear, piercing her shimmering form.
She screamed, the sound unraveling reality at the edges.
Kael's arms locked around Selene as the world dissolved into chaos. The knife finally released her hand, its blade disintegrating midair. The standing stones exploded one by one, their power ricocheting wildly.
Through the maelstrom, Cyrus remained standing...a lone figure at the epicenter, his body crumbling to ash as the light consumed him. His voice carried on the dying wind:
"The cage is broken. The power is yours now. Use it better."
Then the light collapsed inward.
And the First Shadow...
...changed.
The Aftermath
Silence.
Selene realized three things at once: The Blood Moon had shattered, its fragments raining down like dying embers,
The corrupted wolves were reverting...their extra limbs withering, their too-many eyes sealing shut,
Where the First Shadow had stood, there now crouched a child.
No older than six, with Cyrus's stubborn chin and her mother's wild curls. Her eyes...one blue, one black...widened at her own small hands.
"What..." The girl's voice was painfully human. "What did you do to me?"
Kael's shadows coiled defensively. "Selene. That's not..."
"I know." She stepped forward, her own markings still pulsing. The power Cyrus had unleashed now lived in her veins...not the First Shadow's hunger, but something older. Something that smelled like dawn after a long night.
The child scrambled back. "Stay away!"
Selene knelt, ignoring Kael's warning growl. "We're not going to hurt you."
The girl bared teeth that were slightly too sharp. "Liar."
Then she bit Selene's outstretched hand.
And the world went white again.