Cain
I raced up the tower, the families safeguarded within the Lunar Heights. I got up onto the roof and froze dead in my tracks. I had to hold my chest to ta my heart. The roaring in my head was my mind running through every hair-raising scenario.
The Deltas were in the tower attending to the gammas and civilians. So there was no one there but us. There should have been no one but us.
But when I rounded the satellite dish, all I saw was a hole in the tal hollow circle. The place where she had been had been lted by the sheer amount of heat that her absorbing the Bloodmoon's rays had generated.
The odor of charred flesh hit in the face like a punch, leaving reeling from the impact. I knew her scent even when it was burnt. I doubled over gagging. Still, through the tears forced out of my eyes, I kept my sights on the now-empty dish.
She was gone.
But there was no body—even a burnt one, or a glowing one. There was just nothing.
My eyes darted around, looking for answers, a clue, anything that could give so much-needed answers.
The silence and utter emptiness of the roof mocked . I took a deep breath, only to take another lungful of the fus of charred flesh.
I retched.
I rose with my hand over my mouth, mind spinning with possibilities of what the hell could have happened. If she... died, she should have been here. Where could she have gone?
I turned to face the edge of the roof, a lump forming in my throat.
Unbidden, the image rushed at : she would have been in so much pain, trying and failing to find respite, only to...
I did not wait for the scenario to play out to completion before I ran to the edge. I did not hesitate when I reached there. I looked over and... nothing.
I clutched my chest. Relief—only for more worry to sink in. Everyone had been occupied with rescues. She had been alone. The Deltas had told she'd told them to go and help once the Bloodmoon had passed. She had been left alone for fifteen minutes.
The world whirled around . Nothing made sense.
Had she been taken?
My heart sank.
Or had she gone on her own? In her condition?
I clicked on my comm.
"This is Commander Cain. Has anyone seen Ellen Valmont? I repeat—has anyone seen Ellen Valmont?"
Static.
Then—
"Negative, Commander."
"No sign here."
"Nothing at the dical tents."
My jaw tightened.
"Keep searching," I ordered. "Expand the periter. Check the shelters, the evacuation routes—everywhere. She couldn't have gotten far."
If she's even alive.
I didn't say it. Couldn't.
But the thought hung there.
Heavy. Suffocating.
I looked back at the lted dish. At the charred remnants.
Ellen.
Where are you?
---
Hades
I flew at superspeed—wings beating with renewed strength, Orion's power surging through .
Below, the landscape blurred. Trees. Rivers. Mountains.
Then—
There.
The Malrikian Eden.
At first, it looked like nothing. Just dense woods. An ancient forest untouched by ti.
But I had Orion's mories now—and Thea's previous vague directions.
I knewl.
I focused, letting the exhaustion fall off my weary bones after the journey. The speed had taken its toll, but I had a reservoir. Orion's absorbed horn.
And the illusion flickered—like a door had unlocked in my mind, exposing to the true form of the space beneath.
The woods shimred. Dissolved.
And revealed the city beneath.
Gold and gossar.
Towers of shimring crystal. Streets paved with obsidian glass. Walls carved from white marble veined with gold.
The Malrikian Eden.
Malrik's stronghold.
My eyes locked on the highest tower—the central spire, rising above all others.
There.
I could feel it.
The Chalyx. Vassir's horn. My horn.
I let the tether pull like a yanked string. I could feel it call, and I had no doubt that it was what was left of Orion beckoning closer to where I ought to go.
I had only one chance at this. Everything hung precariously on being successful in this mission. Even at the speed I'd flown past Dawnstrike, Darius's army had dwarfed ours by five to one—and by then there were still more coming, filtering through the border of Obsidian.
It had taken all I had to keep flying.
I let air rush into my lungs, letting Orion lead .
I could see the flashes of an interior—clues. A painting of Malrik in red garnts like the leader of so insidious cult. A statue of pure onyx in his figure. A dark room, fortified with a heavy door, locked, guarded by... a person.
But I could feel the Chalyx. It called, pulsing with stolen power, calling .
I folded my wings and dove.
Straight toward the tower.
---
I did not think to pause, to recalibrate—even as alarms started to blare, deafening, loud enough to shatter eardrums.
But I could not even feel my own head pounding as gammas poured out of their positions, taking aim at with weapons.
I wove through the rounds launched at , adrenaline and desperation driving like hard drugs in my system—as thrilling and terrifying as my first taste of Eve's blood.
I could still hear the echoes of the vows we made to each other. It was the haunting lody that played in my head as the first round buried itself in the thick column of my tail.
Sothing shrieked.
It took a mont before I realized the sound had co from .
But still my wings did not stop flapping.
Another round hit—tearing through my left wing. The mbrane shredded. Pain exploded.
I faltered. Dropped ten feet. Twenty.
No.
I roared—not in pain, in fury—and beat my wings harder.
Blood stread behind , painting the air red.
But I climbed.
Higher. Faster.
The tower was fifty ters away. Forty. Thirty.
More rounds.
One caught my shoulder. Another my ribs.
My vision blurred.
But through it—through the pain, the blood, the agony—
I saw her.
Eve.
Standing in Dawnstrike. Facing an army. Protecting our pups.
Waiting for .
My jaws unhinged.
And I howled.
The sound tore through the air—raw, primal, infused with everything I had left.
Chalyx.
Vassir's power.
My power.
The gammas below convulsedl—clutching their heads, dropping their weapons, falling to their knees.
The compulsion shattered.
For just a mont.
I drove my way into the tower through a window already shattered by gunfire. The entire column of the tower fell apart at the impact of my violent intrusion, my blood spraying across pristine marble as I landed.
I knew I was on the right floor.
The first thing I saw was the unnerving painting. The vision ca back—a confirmation I was indeed not far from what I sought.
I blinked back the vision.
And suddenly, the room was filled with wolves—all growling and snarling at .
With my body a map of wounds and still conserving my power to maintain my strength, I might have been larger, but even a hill of ferocious ants could take down a bird.
I let out the sa disarming howl.
But this ti it had no effect.
Confusion rippled through as I eyed all of them, then the path ahead that I was supposed to take. In the distance, I could see what looked like the silhouette of a statue.
But they were everywhere. They littered every corner.
And that was when I noticed the sheen of their hides.
They looked grood. Clean. Like they had never fought a day in their lives. Like they lathered their fur with shampoo and expensive scented soaps. There was not a scar, not a nick on any of them.
I ca to the realization as to why they were impervious to my howl.
They were not marked.
Why would they be?
They did not need compulsion if they were voluntarily in on Malrik's plan.
They were the chosen ones. The worthies that Malrik had ensured would live while the rest of the world perished. While they enjoyed the utopia built just for them.
They were Silverpine nobles. The politicians. The wealthy. The conglorate owners who knew how this would all go down and accepted it.
Now, they were standing between and my goal—all so they could defend their stolen paradise. And they looked ready to stop at all cost, holding back from what they knew held the fragnts of their fates together.
This fight would be steep and bloody.
I had no ti.
Then the world turned red again.
Crimson light bleeding in from beyond the windows.
My heart sank .
No.
The Bloodmoon—
It was back .
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