The Entity POV
She slipped through my fingers again.
I felt it the moment the Void cracked.
The Bone Seer's ritual had worked. The blood was fresh. The virgins pure. The runes saturated in the rot of the oldest curses. I watched it unfold with perfect precision, her screams, her magic, the tethered pull across realms.
She was mine.
And then that luminous whore intervened.
Nythera.
Again.
But not with whispers this time. Not with divine dreams or protective charms. No. She threw herself into the ritual, shattered the circle with the weight of her dying starfire, and ripped Rhiannan from my reach.
Ripped her from me.
The mirror before me shattered as I screamed, black glass exploding in all directions. The Void itself pulsed with my rage, the shadows retreating like whipped dogs, hissing and curling into themselves.
"She stole her," I snarled, pacing through the wreckage, my claws dripping voidlight. "That meddling cunt of a goddess. That feathered celestial cunt."
I should have expected it. The Mother always protects her spawn. But I had been so close. Her scent was in the spell. Her power had touched my own.
She was coming to me. Mine.
And now she was gone.
Flung into a realm I haven't breached in eons. The Mirror Realm. Warded. Guarded. Shielded by ancient laws I helped write. A place I cannot reach. Not yet.
I spat blood and magic into the air. "What did it cost you, Nythera? What did you give up, little dove, to snatch her from my jaws?"
No answer. Of course.
But someone would answer.
My eyes fell on the chained beast in the center of my hall, Sable. My precious broken hound.
He stirred as my rage filled the room, his body limp but his aura crackling. Ah yes… awake, are we?
"Did you feel it?" I cooed, circling him like a vulture. "She was mine. I was going to peel her open and pour myself in, leave my mark on every shard of her divinity. But your goddess mommy couldn't leave well enough alone."
He didn't look up.
So I dug in.
"She stole her again. Dragged her across the Veil. Dropped her right into the lap of that vampire you all pretend not to fear."
That got him.
Sable's head lifted, eyes like pits of fire rimmed in red. "What did you do," he growled, low and venomous.
I leaned in close, grinning. "Not me, pet. I simply… watched. Orchestrated. The Bone Seer bled the innocents. The Siren Queen prepared the dungeon. All was ready. Rhiannan was coming home. And I was going to make her my chaos bride."
His chains rattled...enchanted iron groaning under the pressure of his fury.
"But then," I sneered, "Nythera intervened. Again. And now Rhiannan's in the arms of that pale blooded fuck Liam. Another mate, hmm? Another cock between her thighs instead of mine."
Sable snapped. The air around him ignited, dark energy rising like smoke from hell's lungs. Symbols flared across his skin, glowing, ancient, furious. Power he hadn't used in centuries pulsed through him like a heartbeat.
"Touch her," he hissed, "and I will shove your spine through your asshole."
I laughed. Gods, how I laughed.
"Oh, but I will touch her," I whispered. "I will crawl into her dreams. I will salt her soul with shadows. I will make her forget every name but mine. She will scream until the stars break."
Sable's magic lashed out again, his voice now distorted, inhuman. "You talk too fucking much."
"Oh, sweet monster," I purred. "You're not getting out. Those chains held the fire gods of Va'shra. They held Titans."
"I'm not a god," he spat. "I'm worse."
For a single breath, I hesitated.
Then he began to chant.
Low. Ancient. Forbidden. The words made the Void recoil. The air turned to iron. His chains burned him, yes...but they also trembled.
I stepped back.
He didn't stop.
"You won't keep her," I warned, quieter now. "You won't save her. You'll hear her screams ripple through every fucking realm."
He looked up, and I saw the truth in his eyes.
"You better kill me first," Sable whispered, voice burning with blood and prophecy, "because if I'm still breathing… you'll never touch her!"