Darkness swallowed the cavern, but Evelyn could still feel every living heartbeat through the witness crown. Seraphina’s fluttered against her palms. Cassian’s beat hard behind her. Lucian’s moved toward the tunnel, trying to escape. Beneath them, a slower rhythm woke inside the mountain—one beat every several seconds, too deep to belong to a wolf. Mira called it the First Beast, the creature whose willing heart had powered the Lycan crown before kings learned to turn service into domination. Lucian’s corrupted blood had awakened it hungry.
Evelyn sealed Seraphina’s wound with silver heat, buying time but not healing the damage. “Take her to the clinic,” she ordered Noah. “Do not let anyone give her Moonclaw tonic.” Noah lifted Seraphina and led the others up the stairs. Cassian stayed beside Evelyn. His Lycan spirit had returned, but the forced separation left black cracks along his chest. “If the First Beast rises, it will call every wolf into permanent shift,” he said. “Human minds will disappear.” Lucian’s laugh echoed from the far ledge. “Then perhaps wolves will finally stop pretending they are tame.”
The eclipse crown lit the chamber from below. A colossal silver eye opened beneath the water. Lucian stood over it, holding the last vial of Mira’s blood. “Judge me now,” he challenged Evelyn. “Kill me, and the beast drinks royal violence. Spare me, and I open the gate.” It was another false choice, shaped like every trap he had placed