Chapter 2

Emerson pushed her awareness against the uterine wall. She focused her newly gathered Aether into her developing auditory nerves. The muffled sounds outside sharpened into brutal clarity.

A low, frantic chanting vibrated through the floorboards. The stench of sulfur and rotting blood hit Kamala, causing a violent wave of nausea. The sudden spike of intense, suffocating terror flooded her bloodstream with stress hormones, chilling the amniotic fluid.

"Josue, what are you doing?" Kamala's voice trembled. "What is this circle?"

The chanting stopped.

"Sacrifices must be made, Kamala," Josue said. His voice was dead, devoid of any human warmth. "If I am to reach Ascension, I need fuel."

Kamala's heartbeat skyrocketed. The frantic thumping echoed like war drums in Emerson's ears.

"I am your wife!" Kamala screamed. "I am carrying our children!"

"The bloodline of a high-born heiress," Josue mocked, his boots stepping closer. "Combined with the pure, unborn souls of twins. It is the perfect catalyst."

A wave of pure terror crashed through Kamala's bloodstream. The temperature of the womb plummeted.

A sickening, freezing mass of Shadow Aether locked onto Kamala's stomach.

Emerson reacted instantly. She drained her tiny Mana Core, throwing up a razor-thin shield of magic around herself and her brother.

Shhhk.

The wet, heavy sound of a blade tearing through flesh and muscle echoed in the dark.

Kamala let out a blood-curdling shriek. Her entire body convulsed. The violent spasm crushed Emerson against the uterine wall.

Life force began pouring out of Kamala, draining away like water down a cracked sink. The sacrificial circle on the floor below them pulled like a magnet, trying to rip Emerson's soul straight out of her chest.

Beside her, Jaden's chaotic energy flared again, provoked by the dark magic. He was about to explode.

Emerson slammed her soul pressure down on him. Do not move. You will tear her apart.

Outside, Kamala's maternal instinct overrode her agony. Her bloody hands clamped down on Josue's wrist, her fingernails digging into his skin.

"You will not touch them!" Kamala roared. The love in her voice was gone. Only raw, bleeding hatred remained.

Kamala shoved her free hand into her pocket. Her fingers crushed a silver Rune Stone.

A blinding, explosive light detonated in the basement.

A massive spatial shockwave slammed into Josue, throwing him backward. His spine cracked against the stone wall. The sacrificial pull snapped.

Kamala clamped both hands over the gaping wound in her abdomen. She stumbled forward, her boots slipping on her own blood, and kicked the iron door open.

Freezing rain and howling wind slapped against her face. She threw herself into the pitch-black pine forest.

Her boots sank into the thick mud. She fell hard to her knees, the impact jarring the babies inside her. She forced herself back up, gasping for air, her lungs wheezing.

Inside, Emerson pushed tiny pulses of Aether toward the wound, trying to clot the severed blood vessels. But Josue's Shadow Aether coated the blade's entry point. It ate through Emerson's healing magic like acid.

"You cannot run, Kamala!" Josue's furious roar echoed through the trees behind them. "The perimeter is sealed!"

Kamala ground her teeth together. She leaned her shoulder against a rough pine trunk and dragged her feet forward.

Emerson felt the mother's heart rate slowing. The blood loss was too severe. Kamala had less than ten minutes before her organs failed.

If Kamala died, they all died.

Emerson made her choice. She sank her consciousness to the absolute bottom of her Noetic Space. She reached for the heavy, forbidden iron doors of her past life's power.