Chapter 34 - Bloodbound Sanctuary

The underground sanctuary pulsed with eerie silence, the kind only blood magic could conjure. Crimson candles flickered on ancient altars carved from obsidian and bone, their wax pooling in intricate patterns that seemed to shift and writhe in the dancing light. The air itself felt thick with power, pregnant with the weight of centuries-old rituals and forbidden knowledge. Lucien's shadow stretched across the stone floor, cast by the unholy flames into the shape of something more… monstrous. Wings that weren't there, claws that existed only in darkness, a crown of thorns that crowned his head like a blasphemous halo.