"Betrayal doesn't always come with a dagger. Sometimes, it comes with a choice."
---
The air was heavy with prophecy.
Xarion stood tall in the shattered sanctum, his golden eyes unreadable, locked on Selene like the past had never passed. His voice had the weight of a thousand winters, but it was his presence that cracked the earth.
Kai felt it.
The tremor.
Not in the ground—in Selene.
She took one step forward.
"Kai is not your enemy."
Xarion tilted his head, the corner of his mouth twitching into a humorless smirk.
"No, you are. Because you forgot who you were before you kissed him."
---
Nyra leaned close to Riven, whispering, "She's hesitating."
Riven, wincing from a cracked rib, whispered back, "She's remembering."
"Which is worse," Nyra snapped, rising from the shadows.
"Selene was always more dangerous when she forgot how human she was."
---
Selene didn't flinch.
"Then remind me, Xarion. Tell me what I did that cost you your throne. Your soul. Your death."
Xarion's hands ignited in flame.
"You chose the Moon Queen over the gods. You denied your true name. You begged the divine for mercy—and when they refused, you unleashed me."
"I was seventeen," Selene whispered.
"You were a weapon," he spat.
---
Kai stepped between them.
His hand on the hilt of his blade, eyes darting from Selene's frozen form to Xarion's radiant fury.
"Fight me if you want revenge," Kai growled. "But she's not the same woman who buried you."
Xarion blinked.
"Exactly."
---
The ground snapped.
A vein of gold fire cracked open beneath the sanctum floor. The stones buckled.
And something screamed.
Not from above.
Not from outside.
But from below.
The god beneath Tarvax stirred.
And the ancient curse—Selene and Kai's bonded mark—began to glow.
---
Selene's back arched.
Pain lanced through her spine.
Her veins glowed blue.
Kai's hands clawed at his chest as divine light flooded him. The mark on his ribs hissed and bled.
And Xarion took a step back.
"You've awakened it," he whispered. "The twin-bound flame. The curse meant to resurrect the god that kills gods."
Riven whispered, "What god is that?"
Xarion turned to him.
"The one who made Selene in the first place."
---
The floor collapsed.
Everyone fell.
Stone. Ash. Flame.
Selene and Kai dropped through the heart of Tarvax, swallowed by divine light and ancient screams.
---
They landed hard in a chamber carved from bones of giants. The walls pulsed with glyphs that wrote themselves in blood. At the center was a chained coffin made of obsidian, wrapped in layers of cursed silver and godsteel.
Selene gasped.
Kai reached out, eyes wide.
> The coffin bore their names.
Both of them.
As if it had always known they'd come.
---
A whisper rose from the coffin.
Male.
Ancient.
Angry.
> "My daughters… my sons… my mistakes…"
Kai took a step back. "What is that?"
Selene looked at her hands.
They were bleeding silver.
Her voice trembled.
"It's the god who made the first Blood Howl. The god the others killed. The one they buried and chained."
Kai swallowed.
"Why are we hearing him?"
Selene didn't answer.
The answer was already clear.
> Because they were the ones meant to free him.
---
Up above, Xarion dropped to one knee.
Nyra screamed at him, "You knew this would happen?!"
He didn't answer.
Because he was praying.
To no one.
Because now… it was too late.
---
The coffin cracked.
A voice thundered in Kai and Selene's skulls.
> "I AM ZYROTH.
THE GOD OF HOWLS.
THE MOTHER OF FIRE.
THE FATHER OF RAGE.
THE BEAST WHO LOVED A QUEEN…
AND CURSED HER BLOOD FOREVER."
---
Chains exploded.
Blue flame engulfed the crypt.
Selene collapsed as Zyroth's divine voice echoed across her soul.
Kai screamed as something ancient moved inside him.
And above, in the sky far beyond Tarvax, the gods looked down and began to wake.