Poppy’s breath hitched. “The moonwell… touched the child?”
“Not directly,” Yunlian said. “It touched you. And what touched you… touches the baby.”
Mingxi’s grip on Poppy’s hand tightened. “Is it dangerous?”
“No.” Yunlian smiled gently. “It’s miraculous.”
But her smile faded just as quickly. “There is something else.”
Mingxi’s tail tips bristled. “What?”
Yunlian inhaled. “The fragment recognized that spark.”
Poppy’s stomach tightened. “Recognized… how?”
“Like a predator recognizing prey,” Yunlian whispered. “Or a starving creature recognizing a feast.”
Mingxi stepped directly between Poppy and the leyline beneath the floor.
“If it wants a taste,” he said in a dead-calm voice, “it can choke on my remains.”
The moment he said it—
The ward-lines on the chamber floor flared blue. A tremor ran through Huoyáo Jìng. Lanterns flickered. Foxfire sputtered. Somewhere in the valley, a shrine bell rang sharply as if struck by invisible hands.
Yunlian gasped. “It’s pulsing again.”
Mingxi pulled Poppy to her feet, shielding her with all seven tails. “No. Not again. Not tonight.”
But the tremor ran through the air like a breath… and Poppy clutched Mingxi’s forearm, and he knew she felt the tug. Deeper. Harder. More deliberate.
“Mingxi… it’s stronger.”
He snarled. “It’s testing the wards.”
Lysandra barreled into the chamber like she’d been launched. “I heard the bell… wait… wait… I’m feeling a thing. Oh, gods, not again.”
She slapped her palm on the floor. Her pupils dilated— one bright, one dark—and her voice deepened into a layered, primal resonance.
“A spark unborn stirs fear in old hunger… for the child bears the opposite light—a brightness the Devourer cannot consume.”
The temperature dropped.
Xu Yunlian whispered, horrified, “The child… threatens the fragment?”
Lysandra shuddered, panting. “Not on purpose. Just by existing.”
Mingxi’s heart stopped. “The fragment sees the child as an enemy.”
Lysandra nodded weakly and added, “Yep.”
Mingxi tried to keep his rage silent, but he felt a cold, lethal fury that made every foxfire lantern flare white hot. He turned to Mingzhao, who had just arrived at the chamber doorway.
“Father,” Mingxi said, voice low and shaking with contained violence. “I don’t care what protocol we break. We ward the entire valley. We seal the leylines. We put guards at every entrance. And I do not move from her side.”
Mingzhao nodded solemnly. “You won’t have to.”
Chapter 98
