The smile of Cedric Veyra was like a knife.
He stood at the mouth of the alley, the void-black veins running up his neck glinting in the moonlight. His eyes, which had been the same piercing green as Ethan's, now glowed like furnace embers. The atmosphere twisted around him as though reality itself shrank back.
Mara raised her dagger and pushed Ethan behind her.
"You're supposed to be dead."
"Death's negotiable," Cedric snarled while extending his hand. Shadows twisted like snakes around his fingers. "Especially when the Thirteenth Star owes you a favor."
Ethan gripped the codex tighter. It hummed, its symbols flaring crimson.
"What do you want?"
"The same as you, nephew." Cedric took a step forward, the gravel crunching under his boots. "To finish what Liora started."
The Keeper darted into existence above a dumpster, his tattered coat blending with the shadows.
"Liora's dead. Her mistakes live on."
Cedric's grin widened.
"Speaking of mistakes, you shouldn't have betrayed her, Keeper."
The Keeper's form rippled.
"I saved her."
"You failed her." Cedric snapped his fingers.
The alley twisted. Bricks crumbled into smoke as walls folded inward. Mara cursed as the ground melted, swallowing her up to the knees.
Cedric's shadows swung out like a whip of emptiness that burned the air as Ethan jumped.
"Down!" Mara pulled Ethan away. The whip burned through flesh and cloth as it brushed his shoulder.
Ethan hissed, clutching the wound. Black lines writhed beneath his skin.
"Poetic, isn't it?" Cedric advanced. "The heir of the Duskheir, murdered by his own blood."
The codex screamed in Ethan's hands. A burst of light tore through the darkness. Cedric staggered his void flesh sizzling.
"Run!" Mara threw a pellet of smoke. The alley was filled with pungent fog.
They fled through Hollow's End's skeletal streets, Cedric's laughter echoing behind them.
"He is the Star's vessel now," Mara swore as she ducked into a chapel that had been boarded up. "Feeds it pain. Your pain."
Ethan slumped against a bench, the codex's light dimming. The wound on his shoulder pulsed, strands creeping toward his heart.
"How do we stop him?"
Mara hesitated. Veyra's blood serves as the Star's anchor to this world. To sever it, you'd need…"
"What?"
"A sacrifice. Someone tied to its original pact."
The locket around Ethan's neck burned.
Liora's dagger. Her blood.
The chapel doors exploded.
Shadows gathered at his feet as Cedric strode in.
"Sentiment always was your weakness, Mara. You should've let the Order kill him."
Mara lunged, flashing her daggers. Cedric tossed her away like a fly. She struck the altar, causing the wood to break.
"Pathetic." Cedric loomed over Ethan, void-blade forming in his grip. "You're just like Liora. Too scared to embrace the Star's gift."
Ethan's vision blurred. The symbols on the codex burned his palms, blending with the poison of the void in his blood.
Power or death.
He chose power.
Light and shadow collided.
As the codex combined with the corruption of the void and engrave glowing sigils into Ethan's skin, his scream ripped the air.
Cedric's blade shattered.
"You're a fool!" Cedric roared, cracks spreading across his void flesh. "The Star will consume you!"
"Then I'll take it with me."
Ethan pressed his hand firmly against Cedric's chest.
The chapel erupted in a supernova of starlight and screams.
When the light faded, Cedric was gone. Mara deep in the rubble, bleeding but alive.
Ethan knelt, his arms covered with glowing sigils and black strands, a living paradox.
The Keeper appeared, his form flickering with the edge of static.
"You've made a dangerous enemy. The Star won't forget this."
"Good." Ethan stood, feeling the hum of the codex in his veins. "Let it come."
The sun rose over Hollow's End outside. The Thirteenth Star glared on the horizon, swollen and green.
It was hungry.