The map burned away after they opened it.
It had been etched in blood, written in a dead language only Virella's sword could read. Once they reached the clearing in the Blackthorn Valley, a column of moonlight struck the stone dais. The map shivered, then burst into flame, vanishing in an instant.
They had arrived.
Alaric stepped forward first, his eyes scanning the ancient structure. Crumbled columns reached into the sky like broken fangs. The ruins had no roof, only the night sky above, filled with red-tinged stars.
"This is where Selene first bled the Earth," he whispered.
"Where she defied the Eternal Council," Virella added.
And where, according to legend, she became more than vampire—something else entirely.
---
Callum stayed close to her side, claws just beneath the surface of his skin. He didn't like the energy here. It tasted wrong. Old. Alive.
Rian, still recovering from the Triad ambush, leaned against one of the pillars, muttering, "Feels like the stones are watching us."
"They are," Alaric said without looking at him.
Virella stepped into the center of the dais. The ancestral blade on her back pulsed like a heartbeat.
The runes beneath her feet lit up.
Golden-red veins of magic erupted across the floor, connecting to each crumbled column. In the blink of an eye, the ruins reformed themselves. Walls rose. Torches ignited with bloodfire. A throne appeared—stone carved with a sun split in half.
Selene's mark.
"What did you do?" Callum asked.
"I answered the blood," Virella murmured.
And then—the voice came.
"You carry what is left of me."
They turned, weapons drawn. But there was no one.
Only her—a shimmering figure forming from mist, wearing armor made of bone and rose-gold.
Selene.
Or what remained of her.
"I left behind my fury," she said. "So that one day, you would remember who you were."
Virella took a slow breath. "I'm not you."
"No," Selene said, eyes glowing. "But you could become something even more dangerous."
---
Meanwhile… across the sea of dusk and ruin…
Varen stood in a place he once swore never to return to: the city of Ashvale.
Built under the mountain and soaked in ancient blood, Ashvale was once a sanctuary for outcasts—until the experiments happened. Until the betrayal.
He descended the crumbling stairway to the Labyrinth of Iron, where the air burned with old chemicals and dried screams.
He passed the sealed cells where malformed hybrids had once howled for death. He passed the rusted chains where a girl named Marna had once begged him to stop.
He passed the door he could never forget.
And behind it… the only other person who had survived the venom.
"Hello, Kazen," Varen said.
The shadows hissed.
---
Back in the ruins, Selene walked among them like a ghost.
"Do you know why they fear our kind?" she asked, trailing her fingers along the resurrected walls. "It's not our strength. It's not even our immortality. It's our capacity for rebellion."
"They made you a martyr," Alaric said.
"They made me a warning," Selene corrected. "But my blood lives on. In her." She looked at Virella, expression unreadable. "You are not a queen, girl. You are a match waiting to be struck."
"What happens if I refuse this legacy?" Virella asked.
"Then the world burns without you. But it burns all the same."
Callum stepped between them. "She's not alone. She doesn't need your war."
Selene tilted her head. "Then you are not ready. Not yet."
The ruins began to crumble once more, vanishing piece by piece.
But before she disappeared, Selene whispered:
> "Beneath the black sun lies the first army. When blood calls to bone, the gate will open."
And then—silence.
---
Virella stood frozen.
"The first army?" she echoed. "What did she mean?"
Alaric was already at the edge of the clearing. "I know where it is. It's not a legend. It's real."
Callum gave him a sideways glance. "And you were going to tell us this when?"
"When I was sure the sword had chosen her," Alaric said.
"And has it?"
Virella drew the blade. It shimmered in the moonlight, runes glowing.
"I think it has," she said.
---
Back in Ashvale…
Kazen sat hunched in the corner of his cell, long hair covering half his face. His skin was pale, pulsing faintly with violet veins. He was half-mad. But very much alive.
"You came back," Kazen rasped. "To finish what we started?"
"No," Varen said. "To start something new."
He pulled out the vial of venom.
Kazen's eyes flared. "That poison nearly killed me."
"But it didn't," Varen said. "And you're stronger now, aren't you?"
Kazen grinned, teeth too sharp. "So are you."
They stared at each other.
Then Kazen said, "Who's the target?"
"The man who left me behind."
"You'll have to be more specific."
"Alaric."
Kazen hissed.
"I'm in."
---
That night, Virella sat alone at the edge of the valley. The ruins had vanished into memory, leaving only cracked stone and soft wind.
Callum approached quietly, dropping beside her.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No," she said. "But I think I'm stronger than I was yesterday."
He nudged her shoulder. "Still scary as hell, though."
She smiled. Then her face turned serious.
"Callum… if it came to it—if I had to choose between this power and saving all of you…"
"You don't have to finish that sentence," he said.
"I might."
He met her gaze. "Then I'd hope you'd choose us. Because power without love? That's just another throne of bones."
She looked back at the stars.
And in the distance, under a different sky, her brother was preparing to tear the world in two.
---