Darkness consumed me, thick and oppressive. I couldn't see my hands in front of my face. I couldn't even tell if I was still flying or falling. All I knew was the heart-stopping terror of feeling Damian's cold fingers clutch at my ankle just as I'd squeezed through the closing gap.
"Give me the Heart!" his voice echoed behind me, bodiless in the void.
I kicked desperately, my wings fluttering uselessly in the constricted space. The tablet and the Heart were clutched against my chest, slippery with sweat and blood. I couldn't lose them—not after everything.
My free foot connected with something solid. A howl of rage told me I'd struck Damian's face. His grip loosened just enough for me to wrench free, tumbling forward into the inky blackness.
I fell. Hard and fast, with no sense of up or down.
The impact, when it came, drove the air from my lungs. My body slammed against a cold stone floor, the Heart and tablet skittering from my grasp. I heard them clatter somewhere in the darkness, the Heart's faint crimson glow briefly illuminating the rough walls around me before rolling out of sight.
"No!" I gasped, scrambling to my hands and knees.
I crawled blindly, hands sweeping the floor, desperate to find the artifacts. The Heart was volatile, unstable. In the wrong hands—in Damian's hands—it would be catastrophic.
Behind me, I heard the sound of the Vampire King forcing his way through the narrowing gap between dimensions, his furious growls echoing through the darkness.
"Where is it?" I whispered, panic rising in my throat as my hands met nothing but cold stone.
My fingers brushed something warm, pulsing. The Heart. I closed my hand around it, relief flooding through me.
"The tablet," I muttered, continuing my frantic search. "Where's the—"
My words died as a wave of dizziness crashed over me. The chamber spun, though I could see nothing in the pitch darkness. My limbs felt suddenly heavy, leaden.
The Heart. It was draining me, feeding on what little strength I had left.
I tried to rise, to keep searching for the stone tablet, but my legs wouldn't obey. I collapsed back to the floor, the cold stone pressing against my cheek. The Heart pulsed in my grip, drawing more of my energy with each beat.
"I can't..." My voice was a thread of sound in the vast darkness. "I can't..."
Then, like a distant lifeline, I felt him.
_Seraphina._
Landon's voice, clear in my mind despite the miles that separated us. Our bond, stretched thin but unbreakable.
_Get up._
"I can't," I whispered aloud. "I'm so tired. The Heart is—"
_GET UP._ The command reverberated through my skull. _Our child needs you to get up._
Our child. The tiny life growing inside me. The miracle I'd never thought possible. Landon was right—I couldn't give up, not with so much at stake.
Drawing on reserves I didn't know I had, I pushed myself up onto my elbows. The Heart continued to pulse against my palm, hungry, insatiable, but I refused to release it. With my free hand, I patted the floor again, searching for the tablet.
Something brushed my fingertips—cool, smooth stone. The tablet. I dragged it closer, gathering both artifacts against my chest.
"Where do I go?" I whispered, both to myself and to Landon, if he could still hear me through our bond.
As if in answer, a soft rustling filled the darkness. The sound of feathers.
"Who's there?" I called, my voice cracking.
A raven's caw echoed through the chamber. Red eyes gleamed in the darkness—not the blood-red of a vampire, but a warmer crimson. Like Landon's eyes when his lycan emerged.
The raven landed in front of me, its feathers as black as the darkness surrounding us. It cawed again, more insistent this time, and hopped a few feet away.
"You want me to follow you," I murmured.
Behind me, I heard the scraping of claws against stone. Damian had made it through. The sound was distant, but getting closer with each passing second.
The raven took flight, its wings barely visible as they beat against the darkness. It circled once above my head, then flew down what I now realized was a corridor extending from the chamber.
With the Heart and tablet clutched to my chest, I staggered to my feet. My legs trembled, threatening to buckle, but I forced them to move. One step. Then another. Following the red-eyed raven into the gloom.
"Where is she?!" Damian's voice echoed from the chamber behind me. "I can smell her blood!"
I quickened my pace, though every step was agony. The corridor twisted and turned, sometimes so narrow I had to turn sideways to squeeze through. The raven stayed just ahead, its red eyes my only guide in the pitch blackness.
My breath came in ragged gasps. The Heart seemed to grow heavier with each step, its drain on my strength increasing. Black spots danced before my eyes—though how I could see them in the already complete darkness, I had no idea.
"Almost there," I told myself, though I had no way of knowing if it was true. "Keep moving."
The raven let out another caw, this one sounding almost... encouraging. As if it understood my struggle.
Behind me, I heard the sounds of pursuit growing louder. Damian had found the corridor. He was coming.
I stumbled, nearly falling, but caught myself against the rough wall. My fingers came away wet—blood from my scraped palms. I pushed on, following the raven's dim outline as it led me deeper into the maze.
"You can't escape, Seraphina!" Damian's voice echoed through the corridors, closer now. "The Heart belongs to me! It's mine by right!"
I didn't waste energy responding. Every breath was precious, every step a battle against the encroaching exhaustion.
The raven suddenly disappeared around a corner ahead. I followed, nearly collapsing as I turned the bend. And then I saw it—a faint rectangle of light. A doorway.
Hope surged through me, giving me a fresh burst of strength. I pushed toward the light, my legs moving faster than I thought possible in my weakened state.
The doorway grew closer, the light brighter. I could make out figures on the other side—familiar silhouettes.
"Regina! Ronan!" I tried to call, but my voice was a broken whisper.
The light from the doorway illuminated the corridor around me. For the first time, I could see the walls—ancient stone covered in strange symbols that glowed faintly at my approach. The floor beneath my feet was smooth obsidian, reflecting the light like dark water.
Twenty feet to the door. Then fifteen. Then ten.
Behind me, I heard Damian's furious snarl as he caught sight of me.
"Give me the Heart!" he roared, his voice so close I could feel its vibration in my bones.
I pushed harder, my eyes fixed on the doorway ahead. Five feet now. Almost there.
The raven swooped through the opening, vanishing into the light beyond. I followed, launching myself toward freedom with the last of my strength.
But the doorway was closing—ancient stone slabs sliding together just like the dimensional portal had. The gap narrowed rapidly, the light becoming a thin sliver.
"No!" I cried, forcing my exhausted limbs to move faster.
Three feet. Two feet. One.
With a desperate lunge, I hurled myself through the gap just as the massive stone doors slammed shut with finality. I heard Damian's howl of fury from the other side, fists pounding against the sealed entry.
I sprawled onto the ground, gasping for air, the Heart and tablet still clutched in my white-knuckled grip. My vision swam, the world around me blurring.
I was dimly aware of voices, of hands reaching for me, lifting me.
"Seraphina! Goddess, what happened to you?" Regina's voice, filled with concern.
"She has the Heart," Ronan said, his tone reverent. "She actually did it."
I tried to speak, to warn them, but my throat closed around the words. Dark spots expanded across my vision.
"Something's coming through!" someone shouted—one of the guardians, I thought.
I managed to lift my head just enough to see the sealed doorway behind me beginning to crack, stone dust falling as something pounded against it from the other side.
"Damian," I gasped. "He followed me."
The stone door exploded outward in a shower of fragments. Through the dust and debris stepped the Vampire King, his eyes blazing with fury, his clothes torn and bloodied.
"The Heart," he growled, extending his hand toward me. "Now."
Regina and Ronan moved in front of me, shielding my crumpled form from Damian's advance.
"You'll have to go through us first," Regina snarled, her own eyes glowing with barely contained power.
Damian's lips curled in a cruel smile. "With pleasure."
He moved with blinding speed, backhanding Regina with such force that she flew across the chamber, crashing into a column. Ronan lunged at him, claws extended, but Damian caught him by the throat, lifting him off the ground.
"Pathetic," the Vampire King spat. "Is this the best the Lycans have to offer?"
With a flick of his wrist, he tossed Ronan aside like a rag doll. The guardian hit the wall with a sickening crack and slid to the floor, unmoving.
Damian turned his attention back to me, stalking closer. "Now, where were we?"
I clutched the Heart tighter, willing my body to move, to run, to fight—anything. But I had nothing left. The Heart had drained me completely.
"That belongs to me," Damian said, reaching down.
Just as his fingers were about to close around the Heart, a harsh caw split the air. The same raven that had guided me through the darkness swooped down from above, its talons raking across Damian's face.
The Vampire King recoiled, cursing as blood streamed from the gashes across his cheek. The raven circled back, hovering between us, its red eyes fixed on Damian with unmistakable hatred.
"What manner of creature are you?" Damian snarled.
The raven's caw transformed into something else—a deep, rumbling growl that seemed to shake the very foundations of the chamber. The bird's form began to shift, to grow, feathers melting into flesh, wings extending into powerful limbs.
Where the raven had been, a massive lycan now stood—nearly eight feet of pure, lethal muscle, covered in russet fur. His eyes blazed the same crimson as the bird's had been, his fangs bared in a snarl of primal rage.
Landon.
I'd know him anywhere, in any form. My mate. My king. My salvation.
Damian's eyes widened with shock and—for the first time—fear.
"Impossible," he whispered. "You can't be here. You're trapped in—"
He never finished the sentence. With a roar that shook dust from the ceiling, Landon launched himself at the Vampire King.
The force of his attack sent them both crashing across the chamber, away from where I lay. Stone cracked beneath their bodies as they rolled, snarling and clawing at each other in a blur of movement too fast for my fading vision to track.
I heard bones snap, smelled fresh blood. Damian's screams of pain and rage mingled with Landon's feral roars.
"Seraphina," Regina was beside me again, her face bloodied but her eyes alert. "We need to get you out of here."
She tried to lift me, but I was deadweight in her arms. The Heart continued to pulse against my chest, drawing what little remained of my strength.
"I can't..." I whispered. "Too tired."
"Stay with me," Regina urged, patting my cheek as my eyelids fluttered. "Seraphina, stay awake!"
But the darkness at the edges of my vision was spreading, consuming everything. The sounds of combat—of Landon tearing into Damian with savage fury—seemed to come from very far away.
The last thing I saw before consciousness slipped away was Landon standing over Damian's broken body, his massive form silhouetted against the chamber's strange light, his crimson eyes finding mine across the distance.
_Mine,_ his voice echoed in my mind. _Always mine._
Then darkness claimed me entirely.