The screaming started at 3:17 AM.
Not Luna's normal infant cries. This was something else entirely—a sound that seemed to tear through the fabric of reality itself, making the windows of the Silverstone estate rattle in their frames. Seraphina bolted upright in bed, her moon goddess senses immediately flooding with alarm.
Luna was convulsing in her crib, her tiny body arched impossibly as silver and gold light battled beneath her translucent skin like warring storms. The two bloodlines—Moon Goddess and Reality Anchor—were rejecting each other with catastrophic force.
"Damon!" Seraphina's voice cracked as she scooped up their daughter. Luna's skin was burning hot, then freezing cold, then burning again in rapid cycles. Each temperature shift sent waves of distorted space radiating outward, making the nursery furniture flicker between solid and translucent.