Silence.
The kind that came after a storm, when the world held its breath.
Sunrei dragged himself from the glass lake, his clothes heavy with black fluid that evaporated the moment it touched air. His brand burned not with pain, but with something worse. Memory.
Kaelis lay motionless on the shore, her chest rising and falling in shallow bursts. The violet light was gone from her eyes, but her fingers still twitched, as if fighting invisible bonds.
Sunrei reached for her
A hand burst from the glass behind him.
Cael's fingers, slick and trembling, clawed at the shore. His face emerged next, gasping, his missing brand scar glowing like a fresh wound.
Sunrei grabbed his brother's arm and hauled him onto solid ground. Cael collapsed, coughing up black fluid, his skin pale as death.
You Sunrei's voice cracked.You're alive.
Cael's laugh was a broken thing. Unfortunately.
His shirt hung in tatters, revealing the wound where the thing wearing Kaelis had stabbed him but there was no blood. Only a jagged, violet scar in the shape of a brand.
Sunrei's stomach twisted. What did you do?
Cael's smile didn't reach his eyes. What I should've done a long time ago.
Then his head snapped up.
Did you hear that?
Sunrei frowned. Hear wh
The glass lake screamed.
The sound wasn't a sound. It was a pressure, a vibration that rattled Sunrei's teeth and made his brand flare white-hot. The black glass rippled, then exploded upward in a spire of jagged shards.
Lithriel stood atop it, her silver hair whipping in a wind that didn't exist.
Oh, Prince. Her voice was a chorus, layered with whispers that weren't hers. You promised you'd forget.
Sunrei's dagger was in his hand before he could think. Where's Ryvan?
Lithriel tilted her head. The hunter? He's with the Eclipse now. They all are.
The glass beneath her feet darkened, reflecting not the sky, but a battlefield countless figures with glowing violet eyes, their brands pulsing in unison.
The Eclipse.
And they were marching.
Cael staggered to his feet. We need to go. Now.
Lithriel sighed. Running again? How predictable. She raised a hand
Kaelis moved.
Her knife flashed, embedding itself in Lithriel's palm.
For a heartbeat, no one breathed.
Then Lithriel laughed, black fluid dripping between her fingers. Oh, healer. You really never learn.
She flicked her wrist.
The knife melted, dissolving into liquid shadow that slithered back into Kaelis's wound.
Kaelis gasped, clutching her hand as black veins spiderwebbed up her arm.
Sunrei lunged
The ground lurched.
The glass lake erupted.
Shards rained down like daggers, forcing them back. By the time the dust cleared, Lithriel was gone only her laughter lingered, echoing off the crater walls.
Kaelis slumped against Sunrei, her breathing ragged. The black veins had stopped spreading, but her skin was fever-hot.
Cael cursed. We need to get her to the Moon's Cradle.
Sunrei's grip tightened. Why? What's there?
The first brand. Cael's gaze dropped to Sunrei's wrist. And the only thing that can stop the Eclipse.
Sunrei opened his mouth
A horn sounded in the distance.
Low. Mournful.
Familiar.
Cael went very still. They're here.
The trees at the crater's edge shivered. Then
Figures emerged. Dozens of them. Men and women with hollow eyes and brands that pulsed in time with Sunrei's.
The first ranks of the Eclipse.
And at their head stood Ryvan, his sword drawn, his eyes glowing violet.
Prince, he crooned. We've been waiting.
Sunrei's brand burned.
Cael grabbed his arm. The Cradle. Now.
They ran.
The Eclipse gave chase, their footsteps shaking the earth. The crater narrowed, funneling them toward a stone archway covered in carvings a mirror of the mural they'd seen in the forest.
Lithriel waited beneath it, her arms outstretched.
Welcome home.
Sunrei didn't slow.
He barreled into her, knocking them both through the archway
And into nothingness.
White.
Endless, blinding white.
Sunrei gasped, his brand screaming as the world reassembled itself around him.
He stood on a platform of polished bone, floating in an abyss. Above him hung a shattered moon, its fragments held together by chains of liquid shadow.
The Moon's Cradle.
Lithriel rose from the ground, her robes fluttering in a nonexistent wind. Do you remember now?
Sunrei's head split.
Memory:
Standing on this same platform, a brand in his hand.
Cael screaming as the mark took hold.
Lithriel's whisper: It's the only way.
Sunrei's reply, heavy with grief:
I know.
The pain vanished as quickly as it came, leaving Sunrei breathless.
Lithriel smiled. You were never the villain, Prince. You were the sacrifice .
Behind her, the shattered moon pulsed.
Something moved within the cracks.
Something alive.
Kaelis and Cael stumbled through the archway, the Eclipse close behind.
Cael's eyes locked onto the floating moon. Oh, hell.
Lithriel spread her arms. The Eclipse isn't an army. It's a key .
The moon screamed.
The sound shattered Sunrei's vision, revealing the truth the fragments weren't held together by chains.
They were held together by hands.
Countless hands, pressing against the inside of the cracks.
Lithriel's smile widened. And you're going to let them out.
The Eclipse reached the platform.
Ryvan stepped forward, his sword dripping black fluid. Prince.
Sunrei's brand burned.
Then
A hand grabbed his.
Kaelis, her fingers trembling but strong. Sunrei.
Her voice. Her real voice.
Cael took his other hand, his missing brand scar glowing. We end this together.
Lithriel's smile faltered.
Sunrei tightened his grip.
And pulled.
Light erupted.
The platform shattered.
The moon screamed.
And Sunrei remembered everything.