The Sanctum erupted.
Not slowly. Not with warning. One moment we stood kissing in defiance of divine law, and the next, reality shattered with a sound like a thousand mirrors breaking at once.
The frozen moments we'd seen suspended in the air, all those crystallized fragments of time, they all fell at once.
Glass rain.
Beautiful and deadly.
Each shard contained a memory, a possibility, a future that would never happen now. They cascaded around us in a storm of silver light and broken prophecy, catching the strange illumination and refracting it into prismatic chaos.
I ducked instinctively, pulling Astro down with me. The fragments didn't cut when they hit. They dissolved on contact, releasing their contents like smoke that smelled of ozone and something sweet, like dying flowers.
I saw myself crowned in moonlight, cold and perfect on Luna's throne.
Gone.
I saw Astro executing me in the final trial, tears streaming down his face.
Gone.
