Eve
I jumped off Cerberus before he'd even stopped moving.
The stone beneath my paws was wet—slick with something thick and metallic—and the air stank of blood, scorched magic, and raw grief. My chest heaved as I stumbled forward, half-shifted, limbs jerking between wolf and woman as I pushed through the dark.
> "Hades—"
My voice broke.
Another sound answered me. A groan. Ragged. Human. Choked with pain.
He was alive.
I didn't wait. I didn't think.
I ran.
The Black Room pulsed around me like a dying heart. The walls bled memory—old and recent, layered in cracks and screaming sigils that twisted when I passed. The air grew colder. Heavy with anguish, soaked with suffering.
And louder.
The Marker was coming.
Not just in tremors now.
Not just in hums.
It howled.
Like something ancient being reborn through fire and fury.
Like a promise made by the gods—fulfilled in ruin.
