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Shock, disbelief. Even fear. Dozens of eyes were locked onto her.

And then they noticed Caelyn standing right beside her with the darkness threading beneath his skin and eyes as black as the sky.

The crowd no longer knew which of the two of them frightened them more.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Lora cursed.

But they had no time to consider further because another resonance pulse shook the tower and panic resumed.

“Move!” Alyra shouted again. “No more stopping until we are OUT of this damnable tower!”

The crowd surged downward, ignoring both Elowynn and Caelyn as they tried to escape.

They kept descending and smoke thickened the lower they went.

At last, they burst through the doors into the open air, where humans and Astrari alike fled from the Spire in blind panic.

The eastern observatory district had begun collapsing inward toward the central terraces while portions of the suspended bridges were breaking apart in chunks beneath fleeing civilians. Fire spread through the lower terraces while the black sky above Veylspire pressed endlessly downward over the city.

There were no stars and no moon. Only darkness.

Blackwake.

Elowynn’s ears still rang from the shrieking currents beneath the city. Every pulse and surge through the aethercurrents felt louder and closer.

She looked behind her to find Caelyn.

He was staggering and had just barely managed to catch himself hard against an archway, breathing unevenly while black-edged frost continued to web beneath his hand.

“Caelyn,” she cried.

“Keep moving!” he growled at her.

Blood dripped steadily from the wounds in his back now, staining the stone beneath him. He was growing weaker, and cold dread swept through her.

“Elowynn,” he said curtly and without looking up. “Do. Not. Stop.”

But she had already turned back toward him.

A horrifying sound reverberated through the very stones beneath their feet.

Whispers. Hundreds of them.

They rode the smoke upward, threading themselves through the air like unseen things.

Fragments of voices overlapped one another in tones too low to understand.

She had heard them once before.

Astermere.

The Starless had stopped chasing and had gone utterly still. They were listening, too, she realized.

All of them turned as one, peering up… up to the black sky.

Caelyn’s head snapped upward, following their gaze. His expression changed into undiluted fear.

The aethercurrents sang their mournful melody again, louder still; the Starless followed suit. The sound from their broken voices was blood-curdling and shrill enough to make ears bleed.