The cathedral's broken arches groaned under the weight of the storm. Rain hissed through shattered glass, streaking the stone floor in silver rivulets. Ezzy stood at the center, her aura flickering between silver and shadow, the shard inside her thrumming like a war drum.
Selene arrived as if carried by the storm itself. Her fractured aura blazed, shards of light spinning around her like a crown of knives. Behind her came others — hunters, their presences sharp and hungry, drawn by the scent of Caspian's weakness and Ezzy's unstable power.
"Little thief," Selene purred, her voice echoing in the hollow nave. "You've grown bold. But you're still just a vessel. Give me the shard, and I'll let you keep what's left of yourself."
Ezzy's laugh was raw, defiant. "You'll have to rip it out of me."
The shard flared, and Caspian's voice surged through her mind, urgent and cold: Together, Ezzy. Or we both fall.
The hunters struck first. Auras clashed like fire and steel, the cathedral erupting in a storm of light and shadow. Ezzy moved with instinct, the shard amplifying her every motion. She lashed out, silver and black entwined, draining the weapons of those who came too close. Selene countered with blinding shards of fractured light, each strike threatening to tear Ezzy's aura apart.
Through it all, Caspian's essence surged within her, guiding, urging, feeding. For a moment, they were one — predator and prey, thief and thief, bound in a single, terrible rhythm.
But Ezzy felt the truth burning in her chest: if she surrendered fully, she would vanish. She would become nothing but his hunger.
"No," she whispered, even as power roared through her veins. "Not yours. Not hers. Mine."
She turned the shard inward.
The pain was indescribable — a tearing, a burning, a collapse of light and shadow colliding. Her scream shook the cathedral, her aura exploding outward in a storm that shattered Selene's collection. The stolen fragments of countless lives burst free, scattering like stars, dissolving into the night.
Selene staggered, her fractured aura collapsing into nothing. The hunters fled, their hunger broken.
And Caspian — Caspian unraveled. His voice was a whisper through the bond, fading like smoke. You've stolen me, Thief. Make it count.
Then he was gone.
Ezzy collapsed to her knees, the storm inside her finally quiet. Her aura flickered, no longer pure silver, no longer shadow — but something new. A streak of darkness threaded through her light, a scar and a strength both.
She rose slowly, the ruined cathedral silent around her. The city's pulse called to her beyond the broken doors — laughter, anger, love, fear. All of it raw, all of it alive.
Ezzy stepped into the rain, her bag slung over her shoulder, her eyes burning with a light no one could steal.
She was no longer prey. No longer puppet.
She was the thief now.
And the city would learn her name.
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