And then—
The poison struck.
It flared through my veins like spilled ink in water.
The silver light beneath my skin flickered.
At the edges of every glowing fissure, black crept in.
Not shadow.
Corruption.
It veined outward from my wrists, crawling up my arms in jagged lines that swallowed starlight whole. Silver fractured. Violet dimmed where the black touched it.
The celestial fire fought back, blazing brighter, trying to burn the darkness away. The black did not retreat. It spread. Like cracks in glass filling with pitch.
Calder saw it. His smile sharpened.
My grip faltered. Agony ripped inward — not heat, not flame — but something cold and devouring. The poison gnawed at the new seam in my brow, where the Crescent had fused. I felt it scraping there, trying to wedge itself into the fracture lines of my reborn power.
My vision blurred. Constellations wavered. The stars on my skin flickered like dying embers.
I tightened my hold anyway. I could still crush him. I could still let the pressure close.
My body shook.
The poison burned and froze all at once — metallic, bitter, wrong — turning the scent of ozone in my lungs into iron and rot.
The silver veins along my fingers darkened further, black spidering between them. The power inside me strained against my failing flesh. Too much. Too fast.
Calder twisted, wrenching against my weakening grip.
“You are not strong enough to hold it,” he hissed.
The black surged again. My hand spasmed.
And that single, splintered second—
That hesitation—
Was all he needed.
He slipped from my grasp.
The celestial light still burned beneath my skin. My hands trembled as I pressed them to my brow.
The Crescent pulsed weakly once, then steadied.
The black did not disappear. It lingered. Threaded at the edges of every glowing fissure. Waiting. I could feel it in my blood.
I was too weak to pursue the monster I had let escape.
My strength bled out with the light flickering beneath my skin. The sea floor tilted beneath me as I swayed, breath shuddering in my lungs.
There was only one place left for my thoughts to fall. My gaze drifted to the abyss where Alaric had vanished. His voice echoed in the hollow of me.
Until the sea itself takes me—and even then, it will have to fight me for you.
