Selene’s POV
The air in the grand ballroom turned from freezing rain to a suffocating, ancient heat. The black liquid bubbling up through the cracks in the marble floor didn't just smell like rot—it smelled like centuries of buried secrets and dead gods. It hissed as it touched the shattered glass, dissolving the shards into a dark, oily vapor that rose toward the crimson light of the Blood Moon.
The Syndicate mercenaries, who had been ready to fire at me and Caspian's warriors, completely broke their formation. They stumbled backward, their synthetic red eyes wide with a very real, human panic. Their mutated wolves whimpered inside them, clawing at their consciousness to flee.
"What is this?!" Aria shrieked from the stage, her blood-red gown trailing in the dust as she backed away from
