The crimson lightning had barely settled into their bodies when the world around them began to change. The clean air, the healing earth, the peaceful countryside—all of it wavered like a mirage, and Selena felt a cold dread settle in her stomach despite the warmth of the power flowing through her veins. Through her link with Dante, she felt his matching unease, his instinctivereach for weapons that were no longer necessary.
The light dimmed, though the sun remained in the same position overhead. Shadows lengthened impossibly, stretching toward them from every direction like grasping fingers. And in those shadows, shapes began to form—translucent, spectral, but undeniably present.
Thrones.
