Beneath the Shattered Spine, silence was sacred.
But silence, like stone, could fracture.
A low hum, ancient and mournful, began to stir in the deepest chamber of the world. There, encased in obsidian chains soaked in starlight, the Revenant opened his eyes for the first time in a hundred years.
His breath was not air, it was memory. Regret. Vengeance. He tasted the rot of old oaths broken.
Above him, the ceiling of the tomb pulsed with veins of molten sapphire. The sky was bleeding again. That meant he had returned.
Azrael.
The Revenant snarled. His voice echoed in the bones of the world.
"You should have stayed buried, brother."
Kai stood on the edge of the overlook, staring at the golden flare far west. It pulsed rhythmically, like a heartbeat. Like it was alive. The air tasted of electricity and memory.
Kael had noticed his restlessness over the last few days. But Kai hadn't spoken of the visions, the voice in the mirror, or the name he kept whispering in his sleep. Azrael.
Something was calling him. Pulling him toward a destiny he didn't choose.
He packed his satchel in silence, wrapping the last piece of skyglass he'd collected in cloth and tucking it beside the bone pendant he always wore.
Kael met him at the door.
"You're leaving," he said. Not a question.
Kai hesitated. "I have to."
"Where?"
"I don't know. But I'll find it."
Kael nodded slowly. "Then go. And remember what I told you power doesn't make you a god. Choices do."
Kai stepped into the starlit path, not looking back as he wind whispered, Azrael!
Cinder sat cross-legged within her rune circle. The lines had begun glowing without her touch now, reacting to something far away. She could feel the pulse in her bones.
The ash around her vibrated. She pressed her palm to the center rune. The vision struck immediately.
White wings drenched in blood.
A burning city floating upside down.
A man with no face only a voice that screamed like a storm.
And in the center of it all Kai.
She didn't know the boy's name, but she knew him. His soul shimmered with fractured power. He carried pieces of the old world in his heart.
When she opened her eyes, the Spine behind her groaned.
A scale cracked and fell.
The god-serpent was waking.
Ysera burned the last of the prayer scrolls.
She stood at the edge of the sanctum pool, its silver surface now still. Once, it reflected futures. Now it showed only him.
Azrael.
But not as he was as he was becoming.
She placed a hand over her heart, feeling the seal unravel. Her immortality would wane. The sanctuary would reject her. But she had to leave. She had to find him before the merge completed.
Ysera lifted the veil from her eyes. The world shimmered. Threads of fate lit up the dark.
And far to the west, two stars were converging.
She stepped into the wind. "I'm coming, my Thirteenth."
The Revenant rose slowly. Each movement shattered centuries of dust and rusted time. His chains clinked, then snapped, one by one.
His body was a ruin of divine craftsmanship stitched from the flesh of gods and souls of dead kings. One wing remained, black and broken.
In his chest, a void pulsed as he touched the scar Azrael had left long ago. The Fall!
A memory crawled into his mind.
Two brothers, one light and one dark. A promise and a betrayal.
The Revenant stepped from the tomb and the world above sighed as if it had been holding its breath.
Kai traveled for days through the Wraithwood, guided by the strange flare on the horizon. Birds watched him with knowing eyes. Shadows seemed to part for him.
By the fourth night, he reached a hill wrapped in bones and carved warnings.
He ignored them.At the summit, he found a ruin an ancient watchtower split in two.
Inside, a sigil pulsed on the floor. The same sigil he'd seen in Cinder's dream. The same one on his back.He stepped onto it. The sky convulsed. His body flared.
A voice entered his mind.
"He comes. You are the last lock."
Kai screamed as his wings burst free.
And in the distance, the Revenant smiled. Cinder felt the surge across the leyline.
She collapsed as the rune flared. Her body convulsed. Fire bloomed in her veins.
In her mind, she saw Kai fully for the first time. His soul was singing.
And someone else… was listening. She stood, blood pouring from her nose.
The Spine behind her reared up.
"Go to him," it said. She didn't question it,just ran. Ysera knelt on a cliff of silver dust, gazing down into the valley of cracked moons.
The Revenant was there. She could feel it.
She whispered a ward but the stars did not answer.
He was too close now.
Ysera drew her blade of frozen fire.
"I swore to guard the dream. Even from you."
A shadow moved behind her.
"You are late, sister."
She turned slowly and faced him. Azrael. Or… the boy who carried him,Kai.
His eyes were glowing and they didn't recognize her.