The stench of scorched dragonhide greeted Lion as consciousness returned.
He lay swaying in a hammock, each roll of the ship sending fresh waves of pain from the fifth broken chain—its severed end now branding his insides like a heated iron. Moonlight through the porthole painted the waves with ghostly phosphorescence. They were far from the frozen village now.
"Your heartbeat kept me awake for three damn days."
Selene emerged from the shadows, perched on a crate. Bloodied bandages wrapped the joints of her drakescale prosthetic, but more alarming was the new crystalline mark beneath her left eye—a glowing tearstain of solidified magic.
"Where's Calvin?" Lion's throat tasted of copper.
"Topside, studying that ice chunk." She tossed him a waterskin. "It started melting while you were out. Showed us something... interesting."
The bitter medicinal tea soothed the Shadowheart's restlessness. "What kind of interesting?"
"Coordinates." Her pupils contracted in the dark. "To a mobile lab in the Boiling Trench—Conclave remnants." Rising, her prosthetic cast monstrous shadows. "Calvin recognized the insignia. His old unit guarded it three centuries ago." A pause. "He says they might be holding the last living Shadowkin."
Lion's fingers traced his Shadowheart. Since Frostscar's death, it pulsed with strange resonances—as if something in the deep called to it.
"Your eyes." Selene leaned close, sulfur-breath hot on his face. "The darkness is spreading." Golden flames flickered at her fingertips. "Should I—"
"No." He turned away. Since the battle, her fire aggravated the chains' pain. The silence stretched until heavy footsteps thudded above.
Calvin kicked open the door reeking of salt and fish. His hook held a dripping satchel, his lone eye alight. "Look alive, kid." He upended the melting ice onto the table.
The dragon crest within was now unmistakable—a silver wyvern impaled by chains, its claws clutching half a Heartchain fragment. As Lion approached, the chains moved, rearranging into text:
[BOILING TRENCH 47.3°E 129.1°S]
[THE BLOODFEAST COMES]
"The Bloodfeast..." The Shadowheart spasmed. Visions struck like lightning:
A cobalt trench. A rotating cylinder studded with pipes, each terminating in a twitching humanoid...
"They're feeding something." Calvin smashed the evaporating ice. "My old crewmate 'Blackfin' hunts whales nearby. His sub's modified."
Selene extinguished her flames. "Price?"
"Wants to see the Shadowborn." Calvin's eye fixed on Lion. "Says he knows about 'twin vessels.'"
Dawn stained the waves gunmetal gray as Lion stood on Blackfin's rusted sub. The one-eyed old man carved anti-magic runes into the hull with his harpoon. Burn scars covered his back except for one spot—a Conclave sunburst tattoo.
"We guarded that lab three hundred years." Blackfin's voice grated like hull-scrapings. "Turned when we saw what they grew with Shadowblood." His jagged teeth gleamed. "They made batteries of my crew."
Inside reeked of rancid blubber and grease. Beyond the whale-gut storage, Blackfin unsealed a lead-lined door. The bridge housed a bioluminescent chart—glowing jellyfish mapping the trench.
"Bloodfeast is the lowest tide." Blackfin pointed to a crimson fissure. "Lab surfaces to resupply. That's our window." He seized Lion's wrist. "But the Shadowkin there... ain't whole."
An alarm shrieked. The jellyfish recoiled as the red dot pulsed violently.
"They're activating early!"
Through the viewport, the horizon bulged. A geyser of blood-red water erupted miles away—yet Lion's Shadowheart lurched as if hooked.
"Hold tight!" Blackfin wrenched the controls. "Twenty minutes or we're crab-food!"
The descent was nightmare. Pressure made Lion's ears bleed. Through the viewport floated limb-filled sacs. A fetus drifted past—its eyes swirling with Shadowborn darkness.
"They spliced Shadowgenes into whale embryos." Blackfin trembled. "Living ore-detectors."
Selene's prosthetic sparked. In the flashes, her crystalline tear had branched toward her temple.
At 900 meters, the metal horror appeared—a tumorous fusion of coral and steel, its vein-like pipes pulsing. Seven transparent columns housed mutilated bodies, their blood siphoned into a central reactor.
"The core." Blackfin killed the engines. "But the entr—"
BOOM.
The hull buckled. Through the dent, a monstrosity took shape: ten feet of pallid flesh, its armless torso ending in shadow-tendrils, its face just a gaping maw.
"Mockborn!" Calvin drew his sword. "They've scented us!"
As seawater exploded inward, Lion slashed his palm—letting Shadowblood swirl into the current.
Every Mockborn froze... then attacked.
Selene's flames carved a path through the frenzy. They swam for the lab through ruptured plating, emerging in a mucus-lined corridor. Endless tanks lined the walls, each holding a twisted experiment.
The deepest tank held a girl.
Twelve, maybe thirteen. Floating.
Lion pressed hands to glass. Her eyes snapped open—all pupil, no white. Bubbles escaped her lips, but the Shadowheart translated:
[THE ROYAL COMES TOO LATE]
With a hiss, the tank drained. The girl collapsed, a dozen tubes protruding from her emaciated frame. As the last fluid vanished, she ripped herself open—no organs, just swirling darkness cradling half a Heartchain fragment.
"Shadowglow... my name..." Her voice echoed in their skulls. "They used my blood... to forge three hundred copies..."
The lab shuddered. Acid rained from ceiling nozzles. Selene's barrier held, but crystals now crusted half her face.
"Take her!" Calvin severed the girl's tubes. "I'll scuttle the reactor!"
Lion lifted her—unnaturally light, the fragment her only weight. As they ran, her fingers plunged into his wound.
Memories detonated:
The Conclave's white tower. Twelve Shadow royals pressing bloody palms to a contract. The Dragon Queen implanting the first fragment. And in the corner—Selene's mother, her quill dripping Shadowblood as she altered the terms...
"She... corrupted the pact..." Shadowglow disintegrated further. "We never consented..."
White-robed figures blocked the exit. Their sonic weapon dropped Lion, his Shadowheart stuttering—
Shadowglow's darkness erupted in killing spikes.
"Go..." Her body crumbled to ash. "Royal memories... are poisoned..."
Selene caught the remains, pressing her flaming prosthetic to the fading core: "Phoenix-fire can bind souls!"
Too late.
Only the fragment remained, its inscription glaring up at them:
[VESSELS MUST BE PAIRED]
As the lab imploded behind them, Lion clutched the fragment, Shadowglow's final warning ringing in his skull:
Trust not the royal memories.