—The blood of darkness increases the poison’s potency and danger to the alchemist.Use extreme caution.
—Avoid direct skin contact and ensure all tools are properly disposed of or purified.
—This poison is a weapon of unmatched lethality—its misuse could unleash chaos.
I held the alchemy book open, my gaze locked onto the ink-stained page, my pulse pounding.
I had always known the raw power of the Noctyss flower—how its mere essence could unravel the strongest minds, devour the souls of those who dared wield it and suppress magic at its very core.
But now?—
Now, I realized what it became when combined with the blood of darkness.
Not just a tool of death.
A force of absolute annihilation.
A poison so potent, so damning, that it could shatter the invincible, unmake the unbreakable.
This was not simply an assassin’s blade.
It was the undoing of the gods.
Then—an intrusion shattered the stillness.
The weight of my discovery had barely settled when the door groaned open, its creaking hinges slicing through the quiet.
My head snapped toward the entrance.
In one fluid motion, I vanished into the shadows, the journal clutched tightly to my chest, my breath slowing to a controlled hush.Years of survival, of lurking in unseen places, guided my movements, rendering me nothing more than a ghost in the dark.
The intruder entered, draped in black.
A mirror image of myself.
My pulse pounded as I took in the familiar cut of the dark fabric, the precise way the hood draped over the face.
I had seen this before.
In France.
Among the chaos of the Timehunters’ demise, amid the spilled blood and whispers of Noctyss-born death.
Whoever this was?—
They belonged here.
They moved through the space with ease, each step calculated, unhesitating, as if they had done this a hundred times before.
The true keeper of this hidden lair.
My breath hitched as they pulled back their gloves, the dark fabric sliding from their fingers in smooth, practiced movements.Then—the cloak fell away.
And the world stopped.
A shockwave of disbelief tore through me, my grip tightening around the alchemy book as though it could tether me to reality.
Elizabeth.
