Selene stood frozen, the ring of creatures circling her like predators sensing both prey and king. Her pulse raced, but a strange calm settled over her chest—a calm that belied the chaos around her. Every instinct screamed to run, but another, deeper instinct whispered: “Step forward. Own it.”Kael’s hand shot out, gripping her arm, pulling slightly. “Selene, no. Don’t—”But she shook him off. Not violently, not in anger, but with an authority she had never felt before. The air around her seemed to pulse in response, bending and quivering like liquid under invisible currents.Adrian’s eyes widened. “Kael… she’s not scared. She’s… claiming them.”The creatures hesitated. They shifted as though acknowledging a hierarchy they had never known. Their amber eyes, once burning with hunger and threat, now flickered with something else—recognition.Selene’s hands moved unconsciously, tracing patterns in the air. Power hummed at her fingertips, tiny threads weaving into the forest’s energy, tug

The clearing held its breath.The shadow being towered before Selene, its smoke-woven limbs coiling like a patient storm, waiting—measuring. Around it, the forest creatures crouched in reverence, trembling. Every leaf, every root, every heartbeat within the woods seemed tethered to Selene’s next move.“Prove your dominion,” the being repeated, voice vibrating through the marrow of the earth.Selene’s pulse boomed like thunder in her ribs.But she didn’t move toward the being.She turned—slowly, deliberately—toward Adrian and Kael.Her voice, when it came, was soft… and terrifyingly steady.“What does it want me to do?”Adrian swallowed, forcing himself to stand his ground despite the raw power humming beneath her skin. “It wants you to submit. Or to destroy something to show you’re willing to claim power.”Kael spat to the side, blade glowing faintly as he tightened his grip. “These things only understand dominance. They serve whoever proves they can break the other.”Selene flinched.

Selene woke with the unsettling awareness that something in the world had rearranged itself while she slept. Not the physical world—her room was still dim, Adrian still sat at the edge of the bed watching over her, and Kael still lingered in the doorway like a dark, silent storm—but the world inside her had shifted again.Her fingertips tingled. Her heartbeat pulsed with an echo that wasn’t entirely human. And when her gaze flicked between the two men, she felt a rising pressure in her chest—an energy that was beginning to demand expression.She braced a hand against the sheets and slowly sat up.Kael took a step forward. Adrian instantly leaned closer.Selene’s breath hitched. Too close. Too much. Her senses fired like sparks—every sound sharper, every emotion in the room heavy enough to touch.“Selene,” Adrian murmured, carefully soft, “don’t push yourself. You’re still recovering from—”“From what, exactly?” Kael cut in with a low growl. “From him nearly letting her burn out? From

The creature’s words hung in the air like a curse—thin, ragged, and cold enough to bite through bone. Selene froze, her fingers tightening unconsciously against Adrian’s back. The harbinger—an entity she had never seen, never imagined—tilted its head toward her as if studying a long-lost artifact.Adrian moved first.“Selene, stay behind me,” he murmured, voice steady but razor-sharp.Kael raised his energy blade, the glow reflecting off the creature’s smoke-like skin.“That thing shouldn’t be anywhere near this facility. We sealed all dimensional breaches months ago.”Selene swallowed hard.“Then why… why is it here?”The harbinger drifted forward, its form shifting like fog. Its hollow eyes did not leave her—not once.Adrian whispered a curse under his breath.“It’s resonating with her awakening. Drawn to the surge.”Kael answered through clenched teeth, “Or summoned by it.”The harbinger lifted a trembling, vaporous hand. The air rippled outward like a stone dropped into water. Sel

The walk to the Resonance Lab felt longer than any corridor Selene had taken before. The Citadel was too silent—every panel, every floating drone, every strip of light seemed to hold its breath as she passed. And with each step, the silver threaded beneath her skin pulsed brighter, as if the walls themselves whispered back to her.Adrian walked half a step behind her.Kael walked ahead.Neither spoke.But the tension in the hallway thickened until Selene felt her heartbeat echoing in her ears.When the doors to the Resonance Lab slid open with a low, metallic sigh, a cold wave of synthetic air washed over her skin.The room was enormous—circular, with a domed ceiling humming with complex circuitry and mirrored glass. An octagonal platform occupied the center, surrounded by eight pillars that were arced upward like metallic ribs. Holographic scripts hovered around them like faint, glowing ghosts.Selene stopped at the threshold.Adrian sensed the hesitation and touched her elbow.“You’