The makeshift laboratory in the depths of the ruined Obsidian Court was little more than a hollowed-out stone chamber, but to Seraphina Vance, it was a battlefield. She stood over a cracked slate table, her hands moving with practiced, rhythmic precision as she ground dried wolfsbane and shadow-root

"A blood hunt," Seraphina repeated, the words hanging in the damp air of the laboratory like a death sentence. The heavy stone pestle slipped from her numb fingers, clattering loudly against the slate table.

A blood hunt wasn't a mere search party. It was an ancient, brutal rite of execution. It m

"Leo!" Seraphina screamed, the sound tearing raw and jagged from her throat.

His body thrashed against the narrow cot, the metal frame groaning under the violent, unnatural force of his convulsions. His eyes remained rolled back, a terrifying sea of unbroken white, while a sickening, crackling sou