LOGINThe stone walls crumbled under the earth-shattering roar from the pit’s depths.Swirling tornados of violet shadow-fire spewed from the abyss, scorching the ceiling and painting the sanctuary in an apocalyptic twilight."Hahaha!" Silas wheezed, blood spurting from his mouth as his ruptured organs gave out. He lay sprawled on the edge of the expanding chasm, his eyes fixed on little Toby. "You saved him, Dominic... but you opened the seal! The Void Eclipse lineage was meant to devour the realm... and he is its king!"Toby’s small body floated off the altar, suspended three feet in the air by a column of radiant silver-purple light. The mark on his forehead—an ancient, forgotten dual crest of an eclipse encircled by golden flames—pulsed in harmony with the soul-bind marks on Dominic’s collarbone and Clara’s thigh."Toby!" Clara cried out, forcing her poisoned legs to move. Pain ripped through her shoulder where the shadow guard had clawed her, but the terror for her brother burnt hotter
The sound of claws ripping through flesh echoed sickeningly against the damp stone.Black, venomous fire erupted across Clara’s right shoulder as the shadow-guard’s claws tore four deep trenches into her skin. She let out a choked scream, her knees instantly buckling under the violent surge of necrotic poison. The black void venom rushed through her veins like liquid ice, freezing her blood and threatening to extinguish the last flickering embers of her northern fire."CLARA!"Dominic’s roar was no longer human—it was the apocalyptic rage of an apex Lycan King watching his mate bleed.The air in the sanctuary instantly thinned as Dominic's aura exploded outward in a shockwave of raw, terrifying force. Stone cracked. The shadows clinging to the walls shrieked and dissolved under the sheer density of his pressure. His steel-grey eyes vanished entirely, replaced by blazing, predatory gold that burned like twin miniature suns.Before the shadow-guard could pull its dripping claws back, Do
The pitch-black void light didn't just illuminate the ruined stone floor—it hummed with a sickening, razor-sharp frequency that set Clara’s teeth on edge. The air grew instantly sub-zero, turning her desperate breaths into icy mist."Silas rigged the blood-link," Dominic growled, his arm tightening around Clara’s waist like a steel band. His dark suit jacket was ripped at the shoulders, revealing the dense, rigid muscle beneath, pulsing with golden Alpha veins. "He wrapped his hidden sanctuary in shadow-fire. The moment the Sun-Crest Blade tries to open a doorway, the void energy will attempt to incinerate whoever powers the key.""Seven minutes left, Dominic," Clara said, her amber eyes burning through the darkness as she looked down at the blade embedded in the stone.She could feel Toby’s faint, erratic heartbeat pounding against her own through the soul-bind. The boy was bleeding out on Silas's obsidian altar. Every second they hesitated was another drop of Toby's life leaking int
"Nine seconds, Dominic", Silas’s raspy, taunting voice echoed through the blood-red glow of the scrying orb. "Eight..."Black, venomous veins pulsed like spiderwebs across Clara’s fair skin, spreading frantically from the burning Soul-Bind Mark on her inner thigh straight toward her chest. She let out a strangled scream, her fingers tearing into the lapels of Dominic’s charcoal suit jacket as her knees completely gave out."Clara!" Dominic caught her before she hit the cold stone floor, pulling her trembling body flush against his chest.His steel-grey eyes flared into a violent, blinding gold, his inner Lycan roaring in helpless, apocalyptic fury as he felt her life force bleeding out through their soul-link. The agonising heat radiating from her thigh boiled her blood, eating away at the ancient Northern Fire coursing through her bloodline."Drop the Sun Crest Blade and kneel!" Silas snarled through the projection, pressing the jagged silver dagger deeper into little Toby’s chest un
Time shattered into razor-sharp fragments. The black void spear whistled through the collapsing golden barrier, a missile of concentrated death aimed straight at Dominic’s broad, exposed back.Clara tried to scream, tried to force her muscles to lift the Sun-Crest Blade, but the hidden dark curse, locked deep within her mother’s bloodline, violently rebelled against the weapon's divine light. A bitter drop of golden blood bubbled from her lips. Her knees buckled against the freezing stone floor, her fingers slipping uselessly from the polished hilt.Dominic didn't look back. He didn't attempt to dodge, nor did he move to save his life.Instead, with a guttural growl that shook the ancient foundations of the hall, the Alpha King twisted his massive frame over Clara’s fallen body. He shielded her completely beneath his towering width, exposing his bare back to the lethal strike to keep her safe."Dominic, NO!" Clara’s choked sob was cut short as the void-spear slammed down.CRACK!Pitch
"Dominic!"Clara didn't hesitate. As the monstrous void vines dragged Dominic toward the gaping maw of the black abyss, she threw herself onto the collapsing stone floor. Her hands slammed over the acidic tendrils bound around his thighs.BURN!White-hot solar flame erupted from her palms, searing through the shadow vines with a violent hiss of black steam. The void magic shrieked as it disintegrated against her pure light, but two more shadow tendrils whipped out from the dark portal, snapping around Clara’s waist to drag her down with him.Dominic’s gray eyes flared with pure, unadulterated madness. "Touch her and burn!"With a roar that shook the subterranean foundation, Dominic twisted in mid-air. His Lycan claws extended into lethal, golden-edged blades, slicing through the shadow tendrils around Clara’s waist in a single lightning-fast strike. He caught her against his chest, slamming his free hand into the edge of the stone floor to anchor them above the yawning void."Hold on







