The chamber answered Eidos with a groan that echoed through every bone surface. The ribs overhead trembled. The skull embedded in the far wall pulsed with a heartbeat that was not mine, not Jax’s, not anything living. Something ancient stirred with hunger.
Eidos stepped forward.
His vessel now glowed with a horrible beauty, polished bone, lunar light, and shadow fused into a shape that felt like a nightmare wearing human symmetry. His eyes flickered silver and red.
My pulse stuttered.
He lifted his hand.
Several tendrils of bone and light unfurled from his arm. They moved like roots seeking soil, like serpents tasting the air, like fingers reaching for something they had already claimed.
They came straight for my chest.
Jax moved faster.
His body blurred as he intercepted the first
