The war room inside the Nightbound's hidden base was a hive of activity. Screens glowed with surveillance feeds, maps were strewn across tables, and digital markers tracked movement through Silver City's underground tunnels. Helena stood at the center, eyes fixed on a holographic projection of the Temple's collapse zone.
She hadn't heard from Zara in over two hours.
"Still no contact?" she asked sharply, turning to her tech lead, Myles.
Myles shook his head. "Nothing. Her comms went dark after she entered the lower sector. Whatever's down there... it's jamming everything."
Helena's jaw clenched. Zara was strong, but that place had reeked of something ancient. Something wrong.
"She shouldn't have gone alone," she muttered.
"She said it was something she had to do herself," Myles reminded her. "And let's be honest—when has Zara Kane ever listened to anyone when she makes up her mind?"
Helena allowed a brief smirk, then tapped the comms. "All right. I want a recon team ready in ten. We're going down there—jamming or no jamming."
Before she could finish the command, a pulse rippled across the room—a sharp vibration that shook the walls and sent flickers through every screen. Lights dimmed. Power stuttered.
Then Zara's voice came through, faint but steady.
"Helena. I'm here."
The room froze.
"Zara?" Helena leaned into the console. "Are you all right?"
There was a pause, then: "I'm alive. I've sealed the corrupted Shard. But I found something bigger. There were more of them—more than six. Solan wasn't lying. Thirteen Shards. Thirteen wardens."
Helena exchanged a look with Myles. "Thirteen?"
"I need extraction," Zara said. "And we need to talk—soon. This is much bigger than the Order."
Helena nodded. "I'm on my way."
---
Twenty minutes later, the recon team found Zara just outside the temple ruins. Dust covered her black combat gear, her hair was pulled back into a frayed braid, and her shadows flickered dimly around her like smoke trailing off a fire.
But her eyes—they glowed.
Helena stepped forward first. "You look like you went ten rounds with the apocalypse."
Zara gave a tired smile. "Pretty close."
Helena helped her to her feet. "What happened down there?"
Zara's gaze shifted toward the crumbling entrance behind her. "The Order was chasing power. But Solan—he was keeping something in. The Shard I sealed was corrupted, and there are more like it. They're waking up, Helena."
"And the Wound?"
"It's real. It's a rift beneath the city. The source of the Aether itself." Zara paused. "If it tears open again… the last war will look like a skirmish."
Back at the base, Zara was taken to medical for scans, though nothing about her physiology was normal anymore. The Shard had fused with her on a molecular level—every test they ran confirmed it. She was part human, part Aetherborne now.
Helena returned to the war room and summoned the core Nightbound council. They needed to prepare.
As Zara rejoined them, she looked across the room at the team who had risked everything for Silver City.
"There are more like me out there," she said. "Some will want to protect. Others will want to conquer. But they're all coming."
Helena folded her arms. "So what do we do?"
Zara stepped into the center of the room, her voice unwavering.
"We find the rest of the Shards first. We find the other wardens. And we make sure no one else opens the Wound."
Silence fell over the room—then Myles raised a brow. "You're suggesting a global hunt. Shard by Shard."
Zara nodded. "Exactly."
Helena leaned back, a slow smirk forming. "Then I guess we'd better upgrade our gear."
The Nightbound would no longer just defend Silver City.
They were going to war—for the world.
---