Chapter– The Final Descent

The scream echoed like a blade against bone.

Nico.

I didn’t think—I ran.

Lucien shouted my name, but my feet were already pounding down the spiral steps into the belly of the estate. The air grew colder with every descent, thick with damp stone and old blood. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped in a rhythm too slow to be comforting.

And then—I saw him.

Nico was on his knees in the center of the underground chamber. His back arched, his palms flat against the floor. Energy pulsed around him in slow, cracking waves, turning the walls to frost and his breath into clouds.

Rowan reached...