Cain spread his arms as if he meant to embrace the entire hall, and the movement was so sudden that the air itself seemed to recoil from him.
"Blood Shade!"
Suddenly, his dark red hair lifted and fanned out behind his head as though caught in a wind no one else could feel, and beneath his boots a vast magic circle bloomed into existence, its lines sharp and ancient, layered upon one another like the rings of a living heart.
The glow was deep crimson mixed with threads of black, and it pulsed with a steady rhythm that made the stone floor tremble.
Across from him, Cornelia felt the ground shift under her feet. Before she could step back, another circle flared beneath her, identical in design yet thinner, as though it were a reflection cast by his power.
She stared down at it, her lips parting but no sound coming out. The light crawled up around her like rising mist, wrapping around her ankles and wrists, linking her to him in a web of shining veins.
