Page 124 of The Last Remaining Light

Elowynn looked once toward the shadows where Caelyn huddled, hidden from view. She could barely see him now; only the outline of broad shoulders and glinting black eyes reflected back from the glowing crystal in her palm.

Dread squeezed between her ribs.

Blackwake had begun.

No one knew when dawn would come again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“During Blackwake, civilization remembers how fragile it truly is.”

— Vigil Order field journal, author deceased

The tower groaned and shuddered, and Caelyn doubled over hard enough that one knee struck the floor, the pain causing him to hiss out a curse. Black frost splintered outward beneath him, and he struggled to press harder into the shadows.

Elowynn was openly crying now, watching as he tried to force his breathing under control while the pain ripped through him in violent spasms. The darkness beneath his skin had become unbearable, moving like freezing water through his veins every time the resonance beneath the city surged.

“Elowynn,” he ground out sharply.

She looked toward him, the terror in her face nearly killing him.

“Elowynn!” Lora shouted again. “I swear to the stars if you are currently dying in there—”

Another wave of it slammed upward through the city and the chamber windows exploded.

Glass and crystal detonated inward in a screaming wave as harsh wind tore through the chamber. Elowynn cried out, and Caelyn moved before thought existed, crossing the room fast enough the world blurred.

He slammed into Elowynn, twisting as he drove them both to the floor.

Shards tore through his coat and bit deep into his back. Heat flared across his skin before the freezing wind stole it away, and he felt blood begin to seep beneath his shirt.

Around them, papers, books, and resonance charts blew from their shelves, spiraling through the shattered windows into the darkness beyond.

The entire city was screaming; he could hear it from up here.

Caelyn lifted his head to look out the shattered window, and that was when he saw them.

Starless.

Hundreds of them.

They flooded the lower bridges below like pale insects swarming through the city.

Some lurched through the chaos, their limbs bending at impossible angles. Others drifted slowly through the darkness as though listening to something no living soul could hear.

Caelyn watched a man plunge from one of the suspended bridges after the stone beneath his feet gave way. He struck the terrace below with a wet, splintering crack. The force burst blood across the stone and left his limbs bent at impossible angles, his body crumpled like something discarded rather than human.

Then the Starless descended on him.

Pale figures emerged from the darkness, scrambling over collapsed masonry with frantic purpose. They crowded around the fallen man, reaching for him with trembling hands. Some only touched him, their movements strangely reverent. Others tugged at his clothing and limbs with restless fascination, climbing over one another as though compelled by some instinct.

Lora’s voice pitched in panic, the locked door handle rattling. Heavy impacts suddenly slammed against the wood from the other side hard enough to shake the frame itself.

“OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!”

Caelyn turned his black eyes down to Elowynn beneath him.

Snow had caught through strands of her pale hair while shattered crystal and glass glittered across the floor around them.