The Kinslayer

**KELLY THOMPSON'S POV**

The moon’s corpse hung low, a bloated specter leaching color from the sky. Its craters pulsed like open wounds, and the sea beneath it had gone still, a black mirror reflecting its rot. The *Kinslayer* cut through the water, its heartstone hull groaning as if mourning the world it sailed toward. Selene’s wolves clustered at the bow, their star-metal blades glinting like shards of dead constellations. Rhydian stood apart, his serpents restless beneath his skin, their scales shimmering with a light that matched the moon’s sickly glow.

“They’re whispering again,” he said, fingers brushing the twin snakes coiled over his ribs.

Eden glanced up from sharpening his daggers, gold-green magic flickering at his fingertips. “What do they want this time?”

“To *bite*,” Rhydian replied, his smile sharp but brittle.

The ship lurched.

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