SCARLETT
Not the gentle settling of stone but a deep, resonant tremor that rattled the marrow of my bones. The triune mark burned hot across my chest, the new circle of fire, storm, and shadow pulsing in time with the quake.
Kael tightened his arm around my waist. His fire flickered along his skin, throwing copper light across the black ice of the sanctuary. “That’s no aftershock.”
Darius lifted his face to the star-ripped ceiling, lightning tracing the sharp line of his jaw. “The Echo woke something when we bound. Bigger than any heart we’ve faced.”
Lucien’s eyes glimmered, black as the void between stars. He didn’t flinch as dust rained from the cracked dome. “Not something,” he said quietly. “Someone.”
A second tremor rolled through the chamber, longer, hungrier. The frozen floor s
