The storm swallowed Orion's laughter, leaving only the ragged breaths of the group and the metallic tang of blood in the air. Lira stared at the shattered remains of Selene's ice blade, its hilt still clutched in her trembling hand. The weapon had dissolved into shards that glinted like cursed diamonds in the mud.
"Well," Jax muttered, kicking a shard with his boot, "that went spectacularly."
Kael rounded on Selene, his dagger pressed to her throat before anyone could blink. "You. This was your plan? A broken knife?"
Selene didn't flinch. "The blade was a key, not a weapon. It showed her the truth."
"What truth?" Ryen demanded, his gun still trained on the horizon where the shadows thickened.
Lira answered for her. "Orion's not in some fortress. He's everywhere." She pressed a hand to her chest, the chalice's hum now a dull, invasive drone. "His blood is in the hybrids, the clones… in me. The blade wasn't meant to kill him. It was meant to find him."
Nina crouched in the mud, her torn sketchpad open to a page smeared with blood and rain. The drawing was frantic a pulsing heart threaded with black veins, its chambers filled with glowing eyes. She touched Lira's wrist, her voice small. "He's in the dark. The dark that's you."
Selene nodded. "The chalice isn't just a tether. It's a bridge. Orion's been using it to remake you from the inside."
Ryen grabbed Lira's arm, his grip desperate. "We destroy it. Now."
"And if that kills her?" Selene's voice was ice. "His blood is hers. Sever the tether, and you sever her."
The silence that followed was broken by a howl closer this time, harmonized by a child's laugh.
Requiem.
They ran.
The Eclipse Wilds twisted around them, trees clawing at their coats as the hybrids' cries multiplied. Lira led, the chalice's pull drawing her toward a sinkhole in the earth, its edges jagged with rusted machinery.
"Ashen Labs," Mira breathed. "But it was destroyed."
"Rebuilt," Selene corrected. "Orion's true stronghold was always beneath the ruins."
The descent was a nightmare of screeching metal and pooling shadows. The air grew thick with the stench of formaldehyde and burnt hair. At the base of the shaft, a cavern stretched into darkness, illuminated by the faint glow of amber tanks.
Lira's breath caught.
Thousands of them.
Clones floated in silence Lira's face, Lira's eyes, Lira's body in every stage of growth. Some were pristine, others malformed, their limbs fused or eyes vacant. At the center of the chamber stood Eclipse, Requiem perched on her shoulders like a grotesque parody of a child.
"Welcome home," Eclipse said, her voice echoing.
Requiem giggled, pointing at Lira. "Daddy says you're late."
Ryen fired.
The shot never landed.
A figure materialized from the shadows, catching the bullet mid-air.
Orion.
He looked younger than Lira remembered, his gaunt face smoothed of wrinkles, his pitch-black eyes gleaming with a predator's hunger. "Daughter," he said, spreading his arms. "You've come to join the family."
The chalice screamed.
Lira's vision fractured.
Memories surged not hers, but theirs. Eclipse's first breath, Requiem's first kill, the clones' silent pleas as Orion carved into them. She fell to her knees, clutching her head, the chalice's light searing her from within.
"Fight it," Ryen begged, his hands on her face.
"I… can't…"
Orion crouched beside her, his breath cold. "You've spent so long fearing what you are. Let me show you."
His touch was a spark.
The chalice erupted.
Light tore through the lab, shattering tanks, melting flesh. Clones writhed and screamed as their bonds dissolved. Eclipse recoiled, shielding Requiem, but the child broke free, her tiny hands reaching for Lira.
"Make it stop!" Requiem wailed.
Lira's claws found Orion's throat. "How?"
He smiled. "You already know."
The answer was in the light. In the chalice. In the blood.
She plunged her claws deeper.
Orion's laughter followed her into the dark.
When the light faded, the lab was a tomb.
Orion's body lay motionless, his throat torn, but his eyes still open. Smiling.
Eclipse cradled Requiem's lifeless form, her hollow eyes streaming black tears. "You killed her."
Lira's voice was ash. "I freed her."
Ryen pulled her back as Eclipse lunged, her scream raw. Kael and Jax restrained her, dragging her into the shadows.
Selene stood over Orion's corpse, her expression unreadable. "He'll return. His blood is still yours."
Lira turned the chalice in her hands. Its cracks glowed faintly, Orion's voice a whisper in the static.
Always.
Nina's sketch lay in the mud, forgotten.
A chalice, whole again.
A crown of light.
A shadow, waiting.