Night fell faster than it should have.
Seraphine noticed it first.
The sky over the city darkened unnaturally, the fading sunset swallowed by a creeping shadow spreading across the heavens.
Above the tall buildings, the fractured moon began to dim.
He stopped walking.
Seraphine followed his gaze upward.
“The eclipse,” she said quietly.
“Yes.”
But this wasn’t a normal eclipse.
The darkness swallowing the moon wasn’t smooth or natural.
It crawled across the surface like ink bleeding through water.
Wrong.
Very wrong.
Seraphine felt the Veil shudder.
“When the moon darkens,” she said slowly, “the Ancients move easier between worlds.”
He glanced at her.
“Exactly.”
“So we shouldn’t be standing in the middle of a city.”
“Also correct.”
A distant boom echoed across the skyline.
