ONE MONTH AGO
The second seal demanded something different.
The first had been simple enough for him to understand.
Blood.
Innocence.
A place that had once been holy and had long since been abandoned to ruin.
The second was not.
Lilith had given him the instructions before the dream ended, her voice carrying through the chamber without ever revealing where she stood beyond the seven black rings.
“Find what has never belonged to man.”
He had asked what she meant.
She had answered with one word.
“Predators.”
That was all.
He spent the next several days arranging everything without telling anyone.
He was becoming careful about that.
Whatever had begun between him and the woman beneath the earth was no longer something he could explain as an elaborate dream, but neither was he ready to admit that he had willingly involved himself in something he did not understand.
The first ritual had frightened him.
The second made him curious.
For now, he believed he was still in control.
The place he chose was an abandoned hunting ground far from the city, where the trees had grown thick enough to swallow the remains of an old stone lodge.
The roof had collapsed years ago, leaving only sections of blackened wall and a crooked chimney standing among the roots.
There was something unpleasantly old about the place.
He liked that.
It made the ritual feel less like a crime.
By midnight, the forest had emptied of every human sound.
He stood in the ruins with seven animals secured around the clearing.
Two wolves.
Two wild dogs.
A hyena.
A leopard.
And a lion.
He had been warned that bringing the last one into the country had cost more than it should have.
He had paid anyway.
Seven.
The same number carved into the seal.
The crescent moon hung above the trees, thin and pale, barely strong enough to reach the forest floor.
He removed the black cloth covering the object Lilith had given him.
The stone beneath it was no larger than his hand.
It looked ordinary.
That was becoming a disturbing habit with everything connected to her.
He placed it in the centre of the clearing.
Nothing happened.
He waited.
The animals shifted inside their restraints.
The lion gave a low growl.
He looked at his watch.
12:07 a.m.
Still nothing.
For the first time, doubt crept in.
He almost turned away.
The stone moved.
Not much.
Just a slight tremor beneath the leaves.
He froze.
A thin line appeared in the ground.
It ran beneath his shoes, curved around the clearing and disappeared behind the animals before meeting itself again.
A circle.
His mouth went dry.
The second ring.
The restraints around the animals released at once.
The wolves backed away first.
The wild dogs snarled.
The leopard pressed itself low against the earth.
The hyena began pacing.
Only the lion remained still.
He stepped toward it.
“Easy.”
The animal’s eyes remained fixed on him.
The lion pulled once.
The chain snapped.
He stumbled backward.
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Then the lion walked.
It passed him without touching him and stepped into the circle.
The others followed.
One after another, the predators took their places around the ring as though they had been led there by something neither he nor they could see.
He stared at them.
There was no command.
No hand forcing them forward.
No sound calling them.
Yet they stood together beneath the crescent moon, perfectly positioned around the ancient markings.
The stone in the centre began to darken.
He remembered Lilith’s warning.
Do not interrupt it.
He didn’t.
The first animal to bleed was the leopard.
A thin red line appeared across its shoulder.
Then the wolf.
Then the hyena.
None of them had been touched.
The wounds appeared without warning, small at first, almost insignificant.
Blood fell onto the markings.
The second ring drank it.
The colour of the stone changed.
Grey became black.
Black became something deeper.
He watched as the carved symbols slowly began to glow beneath the blood.
The animals grew restless.
The wolves began to howl.
The sound rolled through the trees and came back wrong.
There was another howl beneath it.
Something too deep to belong to any animal in the clearing.
He stepped back.
The ground trembled.
The seven shadows beneath the predators stretched across the ring and began to overlap.
For a moment, they looked like ordinary shadows.
Then they moved independently of their owners.
The lion turned its head.
Its shadow did not.
The leopard shifted.
Its shadow remained perfectly still.
He felt the hair along his arms rise.
The shadows drew together until the seven became one.
A single enormous shape lay across the earth.
He could not make out what it was.
He only knew it was watching him.
The second ring flared.
The stone cracked.
A sound like something enormous exhaling moved beneath the ground.
He nearly ran.
Instead, he stood there, staring as the black lines spread through the circle.
The first ring had opened a door.
The second had taught it how to breathe.
Then the entire circle collapsed inward.
The animals scattered into the forest.
The stone split down the middle.
The strange light disappeared.
For several seconds, there was nothing.
No howl.
No growl.
No wind.
He looked down at the broken ring.
Two of seven.
He had expected to feel victorious.
He didn’t.
Far beneath the earth, something had changed.
He could feel it without knowing how.
He wrapped the black cloth around the stone and stepped away from the ruins.
He never saw the shadow that remained beneath the broken circle.
It stayed there long after he had gone.
Watching.
Waiting.
That same night, hundreds of miles away, Luca was not thinking about seals.
He was in bed.
The room was warm, the curtains drawn against the night, and the old chandelier above them cast a soft amber glow across the sheets.
One of his beloveds rested against his chest while the other lay beside him, their conversation having drifted into the kind of lazy intimacy that came from years of knowing one another.
Luca laughed quietly at something one of them said.
For once, there was no ancient ruin in his dreams.
No voice beneath the earth.
No memory clawing its way into the present.
He had almost forgotten what peace felt like.
Then his body went rigid.
The change was so sudden that both of them noticed.
“Luca?”
He didn’t answer.
His eyes had changed.
The warmth in them vanished, replaced by something ancient and frightening.
The colour shifted until neither of his beloveds could recognize the eyes looking back at them.
The chandelier trembled.
Luca lifted his head.
A sharp crack split the room.
The chandelier shattered.
Glass rained across the floor.
One of his beloveds sat upright immediately.
“What happened?”
Luca was already out of bed.
He stared into the darkness beyond the broken light.
He knew that sensation.
He had felt it before.
The first seal.
But this was different.
Stronger.
Closer.
His face tightened.
“Mother of Creation…”
Both of them looked at him.
“What is it?”
Luca barely seemed to hear the question.
His breathing had changed.
“She has broken the second.”
He looked toward the window as though he could see through the walls, through the night, through every mile between himself and the place where the seal had been.
His voice dropped.
“She’s faster than I thought.”
The room remained still.
His beloveds exchanged a worried glance.
“Luca, what are you talking about?”
He finally looked at them.
For a moment, the ancient fear in his eyes softened.
Not enough to explain.
Not enough to tell them what he knew.
“I have to go.”
“Go where?”
He reached for his clothes.
“I’ll be back.”
Neither of them moved.
They knew him well enough to understand that whatever had happened, he had already made up his mind.
Luca pulled on his shirt, picked up his coat and headed for the door.
Behind him, one of his beloveds spoke quietly.
“Luca.”
He stopped.
He didn’t turn around.
“Please be careful.”
His hand tightened around the door handle.
For the first time that night, he closed his eyes.
Then he opened the door and disappeared into the darkness.