"Valis, get down!" I roared, my boots skidding through the thick purple dust on the platform as I threw my shoulder straight into Vane's chest, driving him backward into the iron railings."You can't stop the beam, Collins!" Vane shrieked, his voice hysterical as he swung his heavy staff in a wild, blinding arc that clipped my collarbone, sending a sharp wave of hot pain shooting down my left arm. "The anchor is locked on the capital! It's already feeding!""Miller!" I screamed over the deafening, bone-shattering roar of the floating monolith overhead. "The steering housing! Jam the drive axle or we're all dead!"Across the vast, vibrating chamber, Miller dragged his shattered leg out from under the broken iron catwalk. His face was covered in fresh blood, his coat torn to shreds, but his gray eyes burned with a terrifying, unyielding madness."Valis, help me up!" Miller coughed, spitting a mouthful of dark crimson onto the iron floorboards as he reached for a fallen structural beam.

We thought we had buried the nightmare in the river, but some curses don't die when you break their chains, they just multiply."Harrison, look at the water," Miller panted, leaning heavily against a jagged rock, his bloodied fingers digging into his makeshift crutch. "The smoke... it isn't clearing.""It's just steam from the wreckage," I said, my voice raspy as I held Valis tightly against my side, my heart still hammering against my ribs from the terrifying fall. "The anchor detonated. We all saw the geyser.""Dad, no," Valis whispered, her small voice trembling with a cold, sickening horror as she stared down into the deep, shadowy chasm. "The white light... it didn't dissolve the purple fire. It split it.""What do you mean, split it?" I asked, a wave of dark, suffocating dread instantly washing over my chest."Listen," she whimpered, pointing a dirt-stained finger down into the ruined hull of the Dread-Engine.Through the quiet roar of the canyon river, a low, wet cough echoed of

"Don't shoot until they leap!" I screamed, my voice barely cutting through the roaring blizzard as I shoved Valis behind my hips and raised my steel blade."I can't hit what I can't see, Harrison!" Corvus yelled back, her fingers frozen stiff against the trigger of her heavy crossbow, her eyes wide as shadowy forms circled us in the whiteout."Dad, there's something wrong with them!" Valis shrieked, her hands flickering with wild, unstable bursts of white kinetic energy. "They aren't hunting for food! They don't have hearts!""They're Skar's scouts," a rough, familiar voice shouted from the blinding snow behind us.I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. "Miller?"Out of the howling gale, Miller slammed into our defensive circle, his breath ragged, his coat caked in thick ice, his face pale from agony as he leaned heavily on a blood-stained pine crutch."I told you I wasn't letting you take the northern ridge alone, you idiot!" Miller wheezed, coughing violently as he drew his

"Harrison, look up!" Corvus shouted, pointing her trembling hand toward the high canopy of the thawing pine forest.A massive grey courier eagle dropped out of the morning mist, its majestic wings ragged, scorched black, and dripping crimson onto the green grass before it crashed violently into the dirt three feet from my boots."Gods above," Miller whispered, pushing himself forward on his hands and knees, ignoring the sharp pain in his shattered leg as he reached for the bird's leather leg tube. "That's Marcus's personal herald. He only releases these when a fortress falls."Valis knelt beside the dying bird, her small, warm hands softly cradling its trembling head as a pale white light flickered from her fingers, trying desperately to ease its agony. "It flew straight through the purple energy, Dad. Its feathers are completely burnt.""Give me the cylinder, Miller," I commanded, my chest tightening so hard I could barely draw breath as I unclasped the tiny silver tube from the bird

"Keep your boots off the rusted metal, Valis," I whispered, holding my breath as we slipped through the jagged breach in the naval base's outer hull. "Dad, the water is rising," she whimpered, her hands trembling as cold sea brine swirled past her ankles. "I can hear the pipes screaming under the floor." "I hear them too," I said, drawing my sword with a silent, methodical pull. "Just watch the shadows. Corvina's guard doesn't patrol on foot. They wait in the dark." "You shouldn't have come to the coast, Harrison," a slick, icy voice echoed through the iron chamber above us. I snapped my blade up, shoving Valis behind my shoulder as a tall figure emerged on the rusted catwalk twenty feet above the flooded deck. Lady Corvina stood shrouded in navy leather, her skin unnaturally pale, her dark eyes glittering with a cold, predatory intellect. In her right hand, she held a heavy bras