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Chapter 556
"You didn't." Brenda tilted her head, studying him. "I was looking at the stars. There are fewer of them than there used to be. Do you know why?""Darkness," Steven said. "A very old darkness.""That's sad." Brenda reached over and took his hand. Her fingers were warm, soft, familiar in a way that made his heart ache. "You're sad too. I can tell.""I'm scared," Steven admitted. "My daughter—she's changed. She's become something I don't understand. Something I can't protect."Brenda was quiet for a long moment. The wrong sky hung above them, the bleeding moon casting strange shadows across the garden.***"I felt her," Kozlov snarled, his voice echoing off the rubble. "The daughter. She's awake."Vane stood at the edge of the chamber, his own obsidian flesh still cracked and weeping from Harry's light. He had been avoiding Kozlov's gaze since the attack, keeping to the shadows, nursing his wounds. But now Kozlov's eyes found him—black pits shot through with red, hungry and furious."Yo
Chapter 555
Wilfreda climbed the stairs from the hall of portraits with a steadiness that hadn't been there before. Her footsteps were measured, confident, each one pressing into the stone as if she weighed twice what she had an hour ago. But it wasn't her body that had changed. It was something deeper.She emerged into the library, and the family fell silent.Gerald, who had been cleaning his shotgun at the table, looked up and froze. The gun slipped from his hands, clattering against the floor. He didn't reach for it.Priya and Janelle stood together by the window, their arms wrapped around each other. Janelle's mouth opened, then closed. No words came.Marta, who had been sitting with Harry, rose slowly to her feet. Her weathered face was wet with tears—not of sorrow, but of recognition. She had seen this before. She had seen her own mother emerge from that same staircase, transformed, radiant, terrible."Wilfreda," Marta whispered.Wilfreda crossed the room and took her aunt's hands. "I saw h
Chapter 554
Wilfreda felt the eyes of every woman in the room on her—the medieval lady, the Puritan martyr, the Victorian matriarch, the flapper, the wartime nurse. All of them watching. All of them waiting."Why me?" she asked. "Why not Marta? Why not my mother? Why not any of the other daughters who came before?""Because they weren't ready," Aisling said. "Because the Obsidian wasn't awake. Because the time wasn't right." She placed her hands on Wilfreda's shoulders. "But you are ready. The Obsidian is awake. And the time is now."Wilfreda looked at her father. Steven stood at the edge of the room, his face pale, his eyes bright with tears. He didn't understand—not fully—but he loved her. She could see it in his face."Will I survive?" Wilfreda asked.Aisling's expression flickered—a shadow of grief, quickly hidden. "The Awakening Ritual is dangerous. Some daughters have died. Some have been... emptied. But you are stronger than any of them. You have something they didn't have.""What?"Aislin
Chapter 553
The estate loomed before them, dark against the bruised sky. Its windows were dark, its grounds silent—but Wilfreda could feel the wards humming beneath the soil, weak but holding. The drive from the clinic had been tense, every shadow a potential threat, every sound a possible ambush. But they had made it.Gerald killed the engine and scanned the tree line. "I don't see any movement.""Doesn't mean they're not there," Chance said, helping Harry out of the back seat. The pendant hung around Harry's neck, dark and quiet, but every few minutes it flickered with a pulse of golden light—a heartbeat that wasn't his own.Steven leaned on Brenda as he climbed out. He was still weak, still pale, but he had refused to stay behind. "The library," he said. "Wilfreda said the entrance is in the library."Wilfreda led them through the front doors, across the marble foyer, past the great hall where she had once played as a child—before she knew she was an O'Connor, before she knew about the Obsidi
Chapter 552
One moment, the clinic waiting room was silent except for the soft beeping of medical equipment and the distant hum of the generator. The next, glass exploded inward, and dark shapes poured through the gaps like liquid shadow.Gerald fired his shotgun twice, the blasts echoing off the walls. One of the shapes crumpled, then dissolved into black smoke. But three more took its place."They're inside!" Gerald shouted, already reloading.Susan was on her feet, dragging Harry's unconscious body behind a flipped-over table. Marta stood between the intruders and her grandson, her hands raised, golden light flickering at her fingertips.Wilfreda grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and swung it like a club, catching a corrupted soldier across the jaw. It staggered but didn't fall."Where are they coming from?" she yelled."Everywhere!" Gerald fired again. "The wards are failing!"And then the front door blew off its hinges.Vane stepped through the opening, his obsidian body gleaming in
Chapter 551
Kozlov tilted his head. "You would give yourself to the darkness? After all these years of trying to control it?""I would serve," Vane said. "As I have always served. The Obsidian is awake now. It needs a vessel. A conduit. Let me be that conduit."Kozlov was silent for a long moment. The torches flickered. The shadows pressed closer."You fear death," Kozlov said finally. "You always have. That's why you came to me in the first place. You want to live forever. You want to cheat the grave."Vane said nothing."Now you offer yourself to the Obsidian not out of loyalty, not out of devotion, but out of fear. Fear of what I will do to you if you return empty-handed. Fear of the iron rot spreading through your veins. Fear of the darkness that's been whispering to you in your sleep."Vane's hands trembled."I am not afraid," he lied.Kozlov laughed—a cold, hollow sound. "You are afraid. And that's why I'm going to accept your offer."Vane looked up, surprise flickering across his features.
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