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Erovos' hand was frigid and smooth, like glass fired from the first strokes of lightning upon the sands of time. My fingers slid further into his grasp as he yanked me closer.

“Where did you go?” he asked again, each drag of his gaze leaching the warmth from my skin.

“The past,” I whispered, withdrawing my hand as if I’d been burned.

“Ah,” he smiled, revealing his sharp teeth. “So your talents aren’t to be exaggerated.”

I tore my eyes away from his threatening stare, and when my surroundings came into view, horror punched up my throat. I hadn’t gone anywhere. Only a second had passed, yet it had been over fifteen years.

I was standing in the same barren landscape as my childhood memory, only now, the once strong and magnificent tree stood twisted in tragedy.

Its deformed branches were coal black, bare, and sharp, sagging with an indiscernible weight.

It would have been unrecognizable if it weren’t for the distinct hollow through its trunk.

“What did you do?” I seethed, mourning the forest that was now steeped in death and despair. The bird had tried to warn me all those years ago, but was it too late? Was I too late? “The creatures that lived here. What happened to them?”

He ignored my question, curiosity engulfing his face. “Where in the past did you go?”

“I answered one of your questions. Now answer one of mine,” I demanded.

“Oh, the starwings?” he asked with a sinister smile. “I haven’t seen one in quite some time. Extinct, I suspect.”

A choked sob caught in my throat as thorns pierced my heart.

“Where in the past did you go?” he asked again, this time with less patience.

“Here,” I ground out, despite the devastation wracking me from the inside out.

“Of course,” Erovos said, his ever-shifting cloak of darkness obscuring his pale face and body. “This tree has called to you many times.”

“Why?” I asked, my gaze snagging on the familiar chains dangling from the internal cavity.

Not only was this the tree from my memories, but it was also the tree I’d traveled to during my Hymma ceremony, where I’d gathered my astrally torn body from across the cosmos and returned to Luneth whole, healthy, and teeming with celestial light.

Even now, it glinted off my skin like a moonlit lake.

“She is Indrasyl, the Sylvan Mother Tree. It is her roots that bind this world. Her arms stretch far and wide beneath us, connecting every living thing on Luneth.”

Everything is connected, Takoda’s words whispered in my mind. At the time, I’d thought it a comforting sentiment, but now I saw it for the beautiful curse that it was.

I ran my hands along Indrasyl’s ruined bark, searching for any signs of life. Every living soul on Luneth depended on the health of this tree.

“All the dying forests and suffering people lead here. But why?” I asked, sending a pulse of Light through the sheath of her trunk with my illuminated palm.

Erovos snatched my wrist in a bone-crushing grip. “Indrasyl has served her purpose well. Luneth is nearly drained. For it is through her by which I feed.”

My eyes widened in disgust. “What are you?”

“I am a being that cannot be sated. My hunger grows and knows no end. And you, my little light, are making my mouth water.”

Terror gripped my spine as sure as the hand around my wrist. I breathed in through my nostrils and wrangled in my fear.

My gift from the Elder Spirits was foreign, the full scope of my abilities was still a mystery.

I could try blasting Erovos with my Light, but the way he eyed my shimmering skin told me he might enjoy such a thing.

I had no idea how to escape the Dark Spirit’s clutches. My best bet was to keep him talking.

“Why string up the men and . . . and drain them within her?” I asked, a captive in his dark aura.

“You know the first half of the prophecy, I’m sure.

The lost light of Luneth shall return to its synodic beginning when the first six stars align with the stones of shattered ruin.

Through blood, bone, and crystal, the marked son will breathe life anew unto the deadened lands of darkness.

But were you ever told the second half? It is much more interesting in my opinion. ”

When I didn’t respond, the Dark Spirit continued. “ Shall the lost light fall unto those who feast, darkness will reign an unending beast. Worlds have fallen, and so they shall remain as a Sylvan door opens to a universe unrestrained.

“It is whispered amongst the stars that many Sylvan Mother Trees exist throughout the galaxies. See the passageway through her trunk?” The Dark Spirit motioned to the hollow with a sweep of his hand.

“It is rumored to be a portal, connecting all worlds through a canopy of cosmic branches. For all her greatness here on Luneth, Indrasyl is but a small sapling within the infinite web of space. I hoped the Alcreon Stone would invoke the portal’s opening, allowing me to pass through.

Rich and viable planets are not easy to locate.

They are rare gems scattered throughout the void, but with Indrasyl's interconnecting system, feasting on plentiful worlds will be effortless.”

He released my wrist and surged toward me like a toxic cloud. I thought he swirled with darkness, but I was wrong. He was absorbing whatever light was around him, distorting the air and making it impossible to discern his true shape.

“You’re a monster,” I choked, falling back against Indrasyl, and even in her destroyed state, she caught me as I fell. Terror seized my muscles as I clung to her. Erovos didn’t just feed off life or light; it was existence itself.

“No. You misunderstand,” he replied. “I am a cosmic conquerer. Worlds have succumbed to my hunger. But don’t fret. The energy I accumulate does not go to waste.”

I couldn’t stop the bile as it roared up my throat—he had replicated this destruction with other planets? My eyes bore into him as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “You’re a world eater, a black hole.”

The power I’d seen him wield against the helpless man, along with the abilities Aliphoura had displayed in the Crystal Crypts, functioned like a controlled black hole. They both drew energy from any living being, siphoning their life to be repurposed into raw power.

Rowen told me that Fou had learned such teachings from Erovos himself. Even Caeryn had used a dark tunnel when he’d abducted me. How many students did this world eater have ?

“What will you do when there is nothing left to conquer?”

“Darkness was first, my little light. And it will be last,” he replied, his gaze simmering with arrogance.

“It took me centuries to find where the Elder Spirits hid the Alcreon Stone. But your fearless leader shattered the crystal at the Battle of the Breaking, and the Alcreon Light was lost. I was outraged until I remembered an ancient prophecy about a lost light. The prophecy spoke of a Synodic Son, and I’ve spent every day for the past sixteen years searching for potential males who I believed could be the one.

They all ended up being a waste of time.

It wasn’t even worth the effort to drain them.

Some would scream and howl while others held their cries for as long as they could.

They all begged for death in the end, and I always obliged. ”

Erovos pulled the ever-shifting hood from his face, revealing the smooth ridges of his head. The prominent angles of his jaw and cheekbones accentuated the depths of his eyes that held twin torches of destruction. Even though his features were alluring and hypnotizing, his countenance repulsed me.

“Very few understand what is on the other side of destruction. But I do. It’s creation. It takes breaking something to make another thing possible. And I have every intention of breaking you.”

Terror surged through me, but I held my voice firm. “Light can bend to darkness, but it never breaks. I will never break.”

“I really think you will.”

“You’ve killed so many,” I hissed. “All for what?”

“I am creating something quite grand with the energy I have stored. Although you won’t be around to see it,” he said with a sinister smile.

“The Elder Spirits think they were the first, but they weren’t.

It was I who reigned before, and the more they create, the more my energy grows.

They are fueling my armies of primordial darkness. ”

“Creating more of your tracker demons?” I asked, remembering it was his creations that hunted me when I began astral projecting again.

Shortly after my encounter with the starwings, my parents had drugged me into oblivion.

The poison they created suppressed my abilities and kept me trapped on Earth, but now my bloodstream ran with untainted celestial light.

As if sensing my thoughts, Erovos caged me in against Indrasyl. “The Light in you is potent. I think I’ll try a little taste.”

Erovos' eyes churned, and his jaw hinged open, revealing rows of jagged teeth. He was a cosmic beast ready to feast. On me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away. Images of Rowen, the man I loved to the core of my being, filled my mind.

“Erovos!” a voice shouted from the shadows, and the Dark Spirit’s maw snapped shut an inch from my neck. I squinted my eyes open.

The body of a bronze warrior emerged from the darkness, his silver-sleek hair matched the warrior circlets on his arms. It was Demil, the traitor who had put me in this position in the first place.

“You know one little taste won’t be enough.

You’ll feed from her until she is dead, and you need her abilities to leave this world. ”

“You,” I seethed, wanting to rip his black heart from his chest. “I trusted you.”

Tears of rage clouded my vision as I recalled Sabra’s lifeless body and Ven’s tear-stained face. Two innocents used as leverage to get me to take Erovos’ hand and disappear with him into the darkness. I wondered if Rowen had realized I was gone. Had Dyani noticed her twin brother was missing, too?

Ven most likely told the village what had happened, seeking help for his lifeless wolf. I just hoped no one would come after me; it would defeat the purpose of everything I had just done— everything I had just sacrificed. I couldn’t bear it if anyone else was hurt or killed because of me.

After being held prisoner in the Crystal Crypts, I’d returned to the Wyn village.

I’d only had a few days of healing before Demil traitorously led me beyond Nepta’s borders.

My life had gone from empty shadows to overflowing darkness, and no matter how hard I tried, a peaceful existence remained a delicate ornament hanging just out of reach.

“The traitor might be right, and I may not be able to stop myself. Though I do wonder how long it would take to drain you dry,” the Dark Spirit said, bringing my thoughts back to the dead forest.

My mind clashed with horrors old and new. “You’re both sick.”

Without taking his eyes off me, he said, “Demil. Come.” And the man I had once seen as a beautiful warrior, who would do anything to protect his people, walked towards the world eater.

A much larger silhouette followed him, and I immediately recognized the giant, Graem.

“Your traitor tells me you are an astral traveler. A walker between worlds. No wonder you were so difficult to find.” He stared at me, his eyes never blinking.

“And thanks to you, I have my next destination. I’m sure there is a tether leading right to where you’re from.

For as I’ve said before, Luneth is nearly all used up, and I grow so very hungry. ”

Horror twisted my gut.

Erovos said it himself, he’d already left a trail of stellar corpses in his path.

The Elder Spirits tried to slow him, but if he gained the ability to travel through a gateway of connecting trees, the swiftness with which he could turn the galaxy into a graveyard was unimaginable. And now his sights were set on Earth.

“You may have the power to destroy worlds and extinguish light, but you can never take away hope. Luneth will fight you until its dying breath,” I gritted through bared teeth. “And you will have to go through me.”

“That is precisely what I intend to do.“

I had no idea what he meant by that, but I was no longer near the village. The fear of hurting innocents was as far away as the man I’d abandoned in bed.

Who cared if I self-combusted and took everyone along with me?

The Alcreon Light thrummed in my fingertips as if begging to be unleashed.

I refused to hold it back any longer. I raised my palm and hit the world eater with a formidable blast of silver light.

Unlike in the Crystal Crypts, when I missed the False Queen, my aim rang true, and I hit the Dark Spirit square in the chest.

He didn’t stagger or even shirk from my blast. Instead my Light stretched and distorted as he absorbed my power whole. Never to escape.

He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck. “Your Light alone cannot defeat me. And should you try that again, I will be forced to destroy that little village you are so keen to protect. Shall we begin?”

“Begin what? Doing to me what you did to all those men?” I asked, my voice broken from the realization that my Light didn’t affect him at all.

When I’d left with Erovos, I thought there would be a way to defeat him.

A way to use my Light when I was far away from the village.

But I was wrong. I had over-dealt my hand, and I now stood before a world eater with no weapon and no plan.

Despair snuffed out any flicker of hope as realization sank in—Erovos had no weaknesses.

“Not quite,” the Dark Spirit said, his churning vermillion eyes trailing up my body. “Now, remove your clothing.”