SCARLETT
The chamber was devoured in blackness. No fire, no storm, no earth only shadow.
I froze, my chest burning with the mark’s glow, my breath sharp and shallow. Kael’s heat vanished. Darius’s storm sputtered. Rowan’s steady weight was gone. All that remained was the suffocating press of darkness.
And Lucien’s laugh.
It slithered over my skin like silk and chains, curling into my ear, sinking into my bones. “Little Moonbane… you called, and here I am.”
“Show yourself!” Kael’s roar cracked through the void, his wolf blazing to surface. Fire erupted around his fists but the flames bent, choked, swallowed whole by Lucien’s shadows.
Darius’s lightning cracked through the dark, searing veins of silver light but the storm faltered, muffled like thunder trapped underwater. He cursed vi
