He ignored the feeling and reached for the glowing knapsack in the bush when something glinting in the grass caught his eye. A black shard with molten red crevices. He picked it up but nearly dropped it, hissing as the stone burned his skin. Hisshadows lifted it in the air and his pulse drummed loudly in his ears.
Hellstone.
It pulsated faintly, like it sensed him.
For a moment, Rune thought he heard it whisper.
Faint, indiscernible words in the old tongues. The kind buried beneath mountains and time, uttered in places where light had never lived.
His shadows recoiled. They lashed at his feet like startled serpents, hissing. The last time he’d seen this kind of stone was in the darkest of places. The forgotten ones, beyond the Seven Hells of the Netherworld to the depths of the Abyss.
Where Titans were chained.
The ground shook beneath his feet and a potent energy rippled through the atmosphere with such a force it droned loudly. He winced at the sound, as if the earth itself had split open. The earth quaked, and it sent another tremor through the world.
And crimson washed through the clouds.
His gaze lifted to the small tear in the sky. A glowing red gash like a scar in the fabric of stars.
A soft voice cut through the night like silk through fire. “What have you done?”
Sunnëva stood in the still forest, pale hair glowing silver in the moonlight. Her white gown shimmered like frost kissed by starlight.
Rune’s chest heaved. “What is this?”
“You destroyed a soul, Rune.” Sunnëva’s glowing blue eyes lowered to the ground where Eldrik had once stood. As the Goddess of Death, she came to collect a soul, but there was none left of it to take. “The most consecrated thing beneath the Heavens.”
The sharp weight of guilt bore down on him.
But Rune shook it off. “After what he has done to my wife, he deserved far worse.”
Her eyes flashed with anger. “You did not merely kill him, Rune. Youobliteratedhim. That desecration tore a Rift into the Realm.”She looked up at the sky. “Pray the world is prepared to face the consequences.”
His stomach dropped.
When Sunnëva looked at him, he read the fear and sorrow in her gaze. “A storm is coming.”
He swallowed. “What do you mean?”
“Your actions tonight have disrupted the balance of the Realms… and formed the first fracture in Vorak’s cage.”
The shard in Rune’s palm burned. His mind spun, fear churning in his stomach at the name.
“He is confined!”
“As were you,” Sunnëva mused. “Yet you found a way to escape your chains. Did you believe he would not do the same? Vorak has planned for a millennium to reclaim his throne, and at last the final pieces are in place. He will break free and unleash ruin upon us all. For she holds the power he has been waiting to consume.”
Rune’s heart thundered.
“You suspected who she was the moment flowers bloomed from her blood. And it was confirmed in that dark chamber.”
Vorak’s voice echoed in his head.
Lashar,he’d called her.
It had two meanings and both were true.
Inheritor of destruction.
