Bloodfang never slept.
Its skies bled a permanent dusk — a deep, churning red where no stars dared shine. Wind moved like whispers. Shadows were alive here. The towers of the Crimson Keep curved like fangs through mist, and inside its stone heart… he stirred.
Ni-ki stood beneath the obsidian arches of the east wing, breathing in the iron-heavy air. The ruby pulsed in his palm like a second heart.
He didn't know how he got it.
He didn't know why it burned his skin.
But when he closed his eyes, he saw her — a girl with horns of starlight and a sorrow that mirrored his own. She was calling to him. Or maybe… remembering him.
"She's awake," he muttered.
"Who?"The voice came from behind — smooth, grounded, and unmistakably Heeseung. The eldest. The leader. A Lumia Vampire, his silver-lined cloak trailing mist.
Ni-ki didn't turn. "The Star Dragon girl. Ayshia."
Jay appeared next, stepping out of the wall like a melting shadow. His dark eyes glowed. "Again with the dreams?"
"They're not dreams anymore." Ni-ki tightened his fist around the ruby. "She's real. And she's missing her Ruby of Honor."
Sunghoon dropped down from a pillar above, his white-frost coat gleaming in the dusk. "You're not supposed to have her ruby."
"I didn't take it," Ni-ki growled. "It came to me. The night I turned seventeen."
Silence passed between them, broken only when Mistress Belladonna entered the chamber — tall, draped in raven-velvet, eyes like black mirrors.
"Then it has begun," she said, voice smooth as smoke. "The rubies are waking. The Trinity is forming."
All seven brothers appeared at once: Sunoo, golden and wild-eyed; Jungwon, firelight flickering beneath his collarbone; Jake, calmly dragging a storm of water in his wake.
Mistress Belladonna walked past them, her cane tapping with elegant precision.
"You were all born rare. You were all saved by me. But this…" she motioned toward the ruby in Ni-ki's palm, "this was never meant to happen."
Jay stepped forward, brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Belladonna stopped in front of a tall iron mirror. She tapped it once. The glass rippled. Images began to swirl — seven girls, each in a different realm, awakening to light, flame, ice, sea.
"Seven princesses. Seven realms of divine blood. All blessed by the Ruby Trinity at birth."
"They are the daughters of balance," she continued, voice tightening. "And you… were never meant to reach them."
Ni-ki's chest tightened. "Then why do I see her?"
Belladonna turned to him slowly. "Because your blood remembers hers."
Silence.
Jay's eyes widened.
Jake spoke first. "The Star Dragon… and the Bloodphantom."
"It's them," Heeseung whispered. "Ryoba and Riku's bloodlines."
The room darkened. Even the shadows recoiled.
Mistress Belladonna exhaled. "The curse we buried is returning to finish what it started."
Ni-ki felt it then — deeper than memory, older than blood. A knowing. A tether. His fingers uncurled.
The ruby had stopped burning.
Now… it glowed.
And somewhere beyond the Veil, a girl with eyes like galaxies had just spoken his name.
"Ni-ki."
END OF CHAPTER