Page 4 of Ecliptic

“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 forany 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 MotherTrees 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.Iwill 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.”

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