Seraphina leaned against one of the bone-carved pillars, examining the edge of a blade she'd apparently brought with her. Vex lounged in a chair that hadn't been there yesterday, legs crossed, looking far too pleased with himself. Thessa stood near the windows, her form catching the light and making her look even more ghostly than usual.
"Why." Dante's voice came out flat as he crossed the threshold, darkness coiling irritably around him. "Are you here?"
Seraphina didn't look up from her blade. "We tried sending messengers."
"I sent them away." Three times. He'd been busy watching Brynn breathe, counting the beats of her heart, making sure she was real.
"We noticed." Vex raised an eyebrow, his gaze taking in Dante's disheveled state with obvious amusement.
"I was occupied."
"How is she?" Thessa turned from the window, concern softening her features.
Dante's shoulders eased slightly. "Recovering."
"We felt the transformation." Seraphina finally sheathed her blade and straightened. "The whole death realm felt it. Your power signature changed. Merged with something new."
Dante's shoulders tensed. The bond with Brynn thrummed beneath his ribs, a second presence that was somehow also his own. He could feel her even from here, sleeping peacefully, her dreams quiet, her warmth something he'd never known he needed until it was almost taken from him.
"Show us what happened." Vex leaned forward.
For a moment, Dante considered refusing. The memory was too raw.
But they needed to understand what she was now. What she'd become. What he'd made her.
He let his shadows flow outward.
The memory took shape in the air between them.
Brynn collapsing. Her soul tearing free, fragmenting, pieces of her essence scattering toward different realms like she was being pulled apart.
His stomach dropped. His hands started shaking before he could stop them.
His memory-self's hands closing around translucent soul-stuff that tried to slip through his fingers. The decision made in a heartbeat. Pour his own death magic into her, rebuild her from the inside out, give her enough of himself that death couldn't claim her.
Living through it again was almost as bad as the first time. His throat closed. His chest constricted. His shadows writhed with the remembered terror, the desperate need, the fear that everything he gave still wouldn't be enough.
Her body convulsing as immortality burned through mortal flesh. Shadows erupting from her skin, white edged in silver.
Silence held the throne room for a long moment while Dante fought to control his breathing.
"Great." Seraphina's lips curved. "Now there are two of you."
"She's considerably more dangerous than I am." The words came out with a pride he didn’t bother to hide. His thief, his companion, his equal. Now immortal and powerful and capable ofthings that would make other courts think twice about challenging them.
"That," Vex said, his smile turning sharp, "is what concerns us."
Seraphina snorted. "You look pleased about it."
Vex winked at her, utterly shameless.
"The death realm recognizes her." Thessa's voice echoed strangely in the chamber, layered with something otherworldly. "The wards stabilized the moment she transformed. The barriers between realms strengthened. She is what we needed without knowing we needed it."
She belonged here. The realm had claimed her as one of its own.
"Which brings us to why we're actually here." Seraphina sobered, all trace of amusement vanishing. "Caelum's shells. They're gone."
Every shadow in the room went completely still.
