The storm came at dusk.
First the wards flickered, one by one, like dying fireflies. Then the windows went dark. A low hum built beneath the floorboards, shaking the chandeliers. Prince stood at the centre of the library, feeling the Hive's mind pressing against his like a black tide. This time it wasn't a probe. This was the real thing.
"Positions!" he shouted. His voice echoed through the hall. Jed shifted into half-form, claws sliding free, eyes glowing. Praise clutched a silver dagger Lammy had carved with runes. Lammy himself knelt in the doorway, sketching a last barrier across the marble with chalk.
The first breach cracked the front doors like eggshells. Smoke rolled in, smelling of iron and rot. Figures in dark armour poured through — Revenant soldiers with bone masks and spears tipped in shimmering venom. Prince slammed his palms outward, sending a ripple of psychic force through the room. The first wave staggered but didn't fall.
Jed leapt, roaring, tearing two masks away before they could strike. Lammy threw a sigil that exploded in green light, burning through another. Praise ducked behind a table, slashing at a spear that came too close.
Then the lieutenant entered.
He stepped through the smoke like a shadow given shape, tall and hooded, his silver mask glinting, his left arm a claw of living metal that twitched with its own hunger. "Two years," he said, voice cold. "Two years since you took what was mine."
Prince's mind reeled as the man's presence slammed into him. He pushed back, but it was like trying to stop an avalanche with his hands. "You'll never have us again," he gasped.
The lieutenant raised his claw. Energy crackled. The wards Lammy had drawn shattered like glass. Darkness flooded the room.
The fight became chaos. Prince hurled illusions to scatter the soldiers, but the lieutenant cut through them, always knowing where he really stood. Jed tackled the claw but was thrown across the hall into a pillar. Praise tried to reach Prince but was dragged back by a Revenant, dagger flashing.
Lammy drew one last sigil, his voice breaking. "Get down!" he shouted. A circle of white fire erupted between them and the enemy, hurling soldiers backward. For a heartbeat the hall was full of smoke and screams.
When it cleared, the lieutenant still stood. His mask was cracked at the edge; his claw glowed bright as a forge. "Enough," he hissed. He gestured and invisible bands snapped around Prince, Praise and Jed, binding them to the floor. Ropes of living shadow coiled around their arms and throats.
"Take them," he ordered his soldiers. "Alive."
Lammy staggered back. His chalk had burned to ash in his fingers. The others were pinned, unable to move. He looked at Prince — at the boy who had saved him two years ago — and something in his chest cracked. There was no time for another sigil. No time for a fight.
He whispered a word his father had once forbidden him to use. His body blurred, shrank, twisted. In the space of a heartbeat the boy was gone, replaced by a small white lamb trembling on the marble floor.
The soldiers lunged. The lamb bolted between their legs, hooves clattering, slipped under a fallen beam and into the corridor beyond. The lieutenant turned, eyes narrowing behind the mask. "After it," he snarled.
Two Revenants broke from the group, sprinting into the shadows after the fleeing lamb. Their claws scraped the walls as they ran.
The lieutenant looked back at his captives. Prince strained against the bindings, teeth bared, but the shadows only tightened. Praise's dagger clattered to the floor. Jed's claws flickered and faded as the magic dampened his strength.
"You should have stayed hidden," the lieutenant said softly. "This time, you don't escape."
He stepped closer, the living-metal claw reaching out toward Prince's face.
Far down the corridor came the faint echo of hooves on stone, fading fast into the darkness.