The Great Hall of the House of Mourning did not look like a place of celebration; it looked like a high-end slaughterhouse.
The walls were lined with mirrors made of polished obsidian, reflecting the thousands of floating candles that burned with a cold, violet flame. The floor was a mosaic of white marble and black jet, arranged in the pattern of a constellation that had long since vanished from the human sky.
As Lucian and Lyra stepped onto the balcony overlooking the ballroom, the air shifted. It wasn't just the music a haunting, screeching melody played on violins carved from the femurs of giants that stopped. It was the collective heartbeat of the room.
Thousands of eyes, ranging from blood-red to predatory gold, fixed on the pair.
"Don't look down," Lucian whispered. His voice was a low vibration that Lyra felt in her teeth. He was dressed in a suit of midnight-blue silk, his chest bare beneath the jacket to show the glowing, silver-violet scars of the Merge. He looked every bit the Prince, but his hand was clamped around Lyra's with a possessive, white-knuckled grip.
Lyra, meanwhile, had been transformed. Lucian's handmaidens wraiths with no eyes and silver needles for fingers had dressed her in a gown of "Void-Silk." The fabric was alive, shifting and swirling around her legs like smoke, and her hair was pinned back with shards of black glass.
But it was her eyes that held the room captive. They were still glowing, a faint violet aurora dancing in her pupils.
"They aren't looking at my dress, Lucian," she murmured, her heart racing.
"They are looking at their replacement," Lucian replied, his jaw setting. "They see the power in you, and it terrifies them. Good. Let them choke on it."
The Walk of the Outlaws
They descended the grand staircase. With every step, the crowd parted like a sea of shadows. The whispers were like the rustling of dry leaves malicious, hungry, and full of a jealousy that Lyra could feel pressing against her skin.
"Look at his skin," a countess hissed, her fangs elongated. "He's been stained by the mortal. He smells of the sun."
"She's a ticking bomb," a general growled, his hand resting on his sword. "The Queen should have fed her to the hounds the moment she crossed the veil."
Lucian didn't slow down. He led Lyra straight toward the center of the ballroom, where a space had been cleared for the Royal Waltz. This was the trap. In the House of Mourning, the Waltz wasn't just a dance; it was a ritual of dominance. If Lyra stumbled, if she showed even a second of human weakness, the Wards of the palace would detect her as a foreign pathogen and incinerate her.
"I don't know how to waltz," Lyra whispered, panic rising.
"You don't need to," Lucian said, pulling her into his arms. One hand settled firmly on her waist, the other clutching hers. "The Merge has given you my memories. Access them. Feel the rhythm of four centuries of blood."
He spun her.
For a second, the world blurred. Then, the "Memory-Leak" hit. Lyra's vision flickered. Suddenly, she wasn't just Lyra from Soho; she felt the weight of Lucian's history. She felt the muscle memory of a thousand balls, the elegant, lethal grace of a predator. Her feet moved on their own, gliding across the marble with a precision that was supernatural.
They moved like a single shadow, a blur of midnight blue and smoke-colored silk. The silver light from the Anchor Node began to bleed out of her pores, trailing behind them like a ghost-light.
"You're doing it," Lucian murmured, his eyes locked on hers. For a moment, the danger disappeared. There was only the scent of him, the heat of the Merge, and the way his hand felt like it was fused to her skin. "You are more beautiful than anything they've seen in a millennium."
The Queen's Gambit
The music reached a crescendo and then snapped into a sudden, violent silence.
Queen Malicia sat on her iron throne at the head of the room, her void-like eyes fixed on the pair. Beside her stood Valerius, his face still pale from the encounter in the Oracle's chamber, but his eyes burning with a new, dark triumph.
"My son," Malicia said, her voice echoing through the silence. "You have committed the ultimate heresy. You have merged your essence with a Source. You have made yourself a god among monsters."
"I have made myself what I needed to be to protect what is mine," Lucian countered, his voice booming.
"Is she yours?" the Queen asked, a cruel smile touching her lips. "Or is she the Node's? Tell me, Lucian... did you merge with her to save her life, or because you knew it was the only way to steal her power for yourself?"
The question was a poison needle. Lyra felt the Tether vibrate with Lucian's sudden, sharp anger.
"I love her," Lucian growled.
The room erupted in mocking laughter. The concept of love was a joke to the House of Mourning.
"Love is a human luxury," Valerius stepped forward, holding a silver tray. On the tray sat a single, black rose made of obsidian. "The Merge is a parasite. And parasites can be removed."
Valerius looked at Lyra. "Did he tell you, little witch? Did the Prince tell you the price of the Merge? He didn't just 'earth' your power. He created a backdoor. If he dies, you die. But if you die... he becomes the permanent host of the Node. He gets the power, the immortality, and the sun without the burden of a human heart."
Lyra felt the air leave her lungs. She looked at Lucian. His expression didn't change, but through the bond, she felt a flicker of something a secret hidden behind a wall of shadows.
"Lucian?" she whispered. "Is that true?"
"It doesn't matter," Lucian said, his grip on her hand tightening until it hurt. "Because I will never let you die."
"Spoken like a true romantic," Valerius sneered. "But the High Consistory is at the gates, and they have brought something even you cannot kill, Prince. They have brought the Solar Decapitator."
The Suspense Peak: The Breach
Suddenly, the ceiling of the Great Hall didn't shatter it evaporated.
A beam of pure, white-gold light slammed down from the surface world, cutting through the cavern roof as if it were parchment. The vampires in the path of the beam didn't even have time to scream; they were turned to ash instantly.
The "Solar Decapitator" ..a massive, satellite-guided laser was tracking the Anchor Node. It was tracking Lyra.
"Run!" Lucian roared.
The ballroom turned into a scene of absolute carnage. The elite nobility, who moments ago were mocking them, were now scrambling over each other to escape the searing light. The Queen vanished into a cloud of ravens, abandoning her throne.
Lucian scooped Lyra into his arms, his wings unfurling with a crack like thunder. He took flight, dodging the pillar of fire that followed them like a hungry predator.
"They're burning the whole city to get to me!" Lyra screamed, watching as the bone-towers of the Sub-London began to collapse.
"They don't care about the city!" Lucian shouted, landing on a high spire. He looked out at the horizon. From the tunnels, thousands of white-clad Inquisitors were pouring in, led by a figure in gold armor that radiated a power equal to the Node.
It was the Grand Inquisitor. And in his hand, he held a shard of the original Void-Stone the only weapon that could sever a Blood-Merge.
"Lucian, the bond!" Lyra cried out. She felt a sharp, agonizing coldness in her chest. The Grand Inquisitor was using the stone to pull on the Tether.
Lucian stumbled, his silver-violet eyes flickering. He fell to his knees, his wings shivering. "He's... he's unravelling us, Lyra..."
Valerius appeared on the ledge beside them, a dark grin on his face. He wasn't running from the light. He was walking toward the Inquisitor.
"I told you, Prince," Valerius whispered. "The Queen doesn't like competition. She made a deal with the surface. They get the Node. She gets a world without you."
Valerius raised his sword, aiming it at the glowing mark on Lyra's chest. "It's time to see what's inside the gift wrap."
Lucian tried to move, but the Solar beam was pinning him down, the light eating into his skin. He looked at Lyra, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated agony.
"Lyra... run... please..."
Lyra looked at the sword, then at the dying Prince, then at the Grand Inquisitor descending from the ceiling. The fear that had defined her life for the last seven days finally snapped.
The silver-violet light in her eyes didn't just glow; it exploded.
"You want the Node?" Lyra's voice was no longer human. It was the sound of a star going supernova. "THEN TAKE IT ALL!"
She didn't run. She didn't hide. She grabbed Valerius's sword with her bare hand and shattered it into a million pieces. Then, she turned toward the Grand Inquisitor and the Solar beam.
She opened her arms wide, inviting the fire.
The Cliffhanger
The beam hit her.
But instead of turning to ash, Lyra began to absorb the sun. Her body became a silhouette of pure, blinding white light. The entire cavern began to shake as she pulled the energy from the satellite, reversing the flow.
"Lyra, stop!" Lucian screamed, his hand reaching for her. "It'll burn your soul out!"
Lyra didn't listen. She looked at the Grand Inquisitor, her face a mask of divine rage.
"My turn," she whispered.
The white light turned black.
The explosion that followed blacked out the entire Sub-London. When the light cleared, the spire was gone, Valerius was gone, and the Grand Inquisitor was a heap of melted gold.
But Lyra was standing on the edge of the abyss, her eyes completely black, looking down at Lucian with a coldness that made his vampire blood run cold.
"Who are you?" Lucian whispered, his voice trembling.
Lyra didn't answer. She looked at her hands, which were now wreathed in black flames. She didn't look like his Lyra anymore. She looked like the Queen of the Void.
And through the Tether, Lucian felt something he never thought possible.
He felt nothing. The bond was silent.
[TO BE CONTINUED]