The eclipse began.
The moon darkened as if devoured by some unseen beast, its edges rimmed with a blood-red halo. Lion stood at the center of the volcanic altar, the three key shards orbiting him in a dissonant whine. To his left, Selene's right arm had fully crystallized, golden fire leaking through the cracks like molten wire. Calvin held the altar steps, his greatsword planted in the stone, his lone eye tracking the dragon patrols circling above.
"Ten minutes," Selene rasped, the crystallization creeping up her neck. "At totality, the gate to the Crown will open."
A searing pain erupted in Lion's chest—the Shadowheart was fighting the shards' pull. The presence inside him grew sharper, a second soul clawing at his ribs from within.
"She's lying."
The Shadow Prince's voice slithered through his mind.
"Look at her left hand."
Lion glanced sideways. Selene's left sleeve hid her fingers, but a sliver of metal glinted at the cuff—a silver needle etched with a phoenix sigil, its tip glistening with poison-green light.
"Selene," Lion said slowly, "you never told me the cost of activating the Crown."
Her pupils flickered. Fire danced nervously at her fingertips. "The Phoenix Ember's flame is pure enough to burn away darkness," she murmured. "No further price is needed."
"Liar."
The Prince's laugh was ice in Lion's veins.
Above, the dragonflight roared as the eclipse peaked, staining the sky the color of old blood. The altar's runes ignited one by one. The shards spun faster, merging into a prism above Lion's head—
—and the prism's light tore open a doorway in the air.
"Now!" Selene seized Lion's wrist. "With me!"
Her touch burned—not with heat, but some deeper, more intimate agony. Lion wrenched free. "What's in your sleeve?"
Selene went very still.
Calvin bellowed: "ABOVE!"
A silver dragon three times the size of the others plunged from the clouds, its rider clad in white-gold armor—the Dragon Queen. Her scepter pointed at Lion. "Stop him! The Shadowheart must never touch the Crown!"
Selene's eyes hardened. She drove the needle into her crystallized arm. Golden fire erupted. "Forgive me, Lion," her voice broke, "but I have to save her—"
"—Mother."
Flame became chains, dragging Lion toward the portal. In that last instant, he saw Selene's tears vaporize into gold mist—and Calvin charging the dragons, his sword a blur, his lone eye alight with berserker fury.
Then—
The world came apart.