The sound of cracking light is not a sound that belongs in any sane world. It is not thunder. It is not ice splintering beneath weight. It is something alive. A pulse of divine force breaking as if it has reached the limits of its sanity. Each crack splits the swirling white glow behind Selene until the radiance no longer looks holy. It looks like bone fractures in the skin of reality.
Selene stands at the center of it, her eyes glowing so brightly that my own vision burns. She looks like me, but wrong. Too polished. Too perfect. A version sculpted to win, while I am the version that survived. And right now, her smile is not hers. It is something borrowed. Something ancient.
The cracks widen behind her. A shape forms inside them. Tall. Broad. Regal in the most terrifying way. Not fully v
