She hesitated, then took it. Her grip was strong. Warm.
Together, they drew the remaining six lines. An enclosed circle of power, symbols twisting into something that pulsed with ancient memory. It looked alive. It feltwrong.
Cassian’s heart kicked harder the second the final symbol snapped into place.
The air dropped ten degrees. The wind stopped. Even the shadows held their breath. Then the center of the ritual began to boil.
No fire or flash. Just... silence.
Then sound. Deep. Wrong. Like a drum made of bone echoing from beneath the world.
The Eidolich rose from the ground.
It wasn’t a creature.
It was a shape. A thing made of dripping memory and bone-white tendrils, half-shadows, half-human features that blurred and flickered. Its voice wasn’t spoken—it was felt.Everywhere.
“What will you give?”
Cassian gritted his teeth. “Fuck me.”
“No talking,” Seraphine snapped, eyes focused. “It feeds on fear. Don't speak unless it's to answer.”
The Eidolich slithered forward. One long finger extended toward her. Not touching—just waiting.
Seraphine raised her chin. “I give you my first scream. The one I didn’t let out when they made me burn.”
The Eidolichshivered—a movement like paper tearing.
It slithered to Cassian.
“And you?”
He clenched his fists. “My mother’s lullaby.”
It recoiled, trembled. Then moved again.
Seven offerings.
One by one, they bled memories into the circle.
Cassian gave pieces of himself he hadn’t thought he still carried—his first stolen kiss behind a broken windmill, the smell of his father’s coat before he disappeared, the day he realized no one was coming back for him.
Seraphine offered darker things.
Her mother’s voice, the feel of her own name whispered like a curse in her father’s war room, the sensation of fire chewing through her veins the first time she was told she couldn’t cry.
When the final truth hit the circle?—
The Eidolich screamed.
Itsolidified—bones erupting from mist, muscle knitting over old magic, teeth sprouting like iron needles.
Itattacked.
Seraphine shouted a ward. Cassian leapt in front of her, stormfire flaring from his arms, slamming into the thing with the force of a godsdamned bolt.
The Eidolichabsorbedthe first strike. Shrieked. Lunged.
