Chapter 55: The Revenants Rise

The walls shifted, shadows twisting into something alive.

Figures emerged from the dark—more of them. Revenants. Just like Shade. Their veins black, their eyes hollow. Hungry.

Shade staggered back. "What the fuck is this?"

Lucian smiled. "Your brothers."

Jade's breath hitched. "No."

Lucian turned to Shade. "You feel it, don't you? The pull. The hunger. The connection."

Shade clenched his fists. He could hear them in his head. Whispers. Voices. Calling him home.

Jade's grip on his wrist tightened. "Shade, don't listen to him."

Lucian's voice was a low hum. "You were never meant to be one of them. The weak. The lost. You were meant to be a king."

Shade's vision blurred.

The power was clawing at him now, demanding to be set free.

Selene stepped forward, her smile razor-sharp. "We could have everything, Shade."

She pressed a hand to his chest, her touch electric. "We could burn this city to the ground and remake it our way."

Shade's pulse roared.

Jade yanked him back. "Enough!"

She grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her. "Shade, I need you to hear me. This is what they want. They want you to lose yourself."

Shade's hands shook. His mind was a battlefield.

Jade exhaled, her voice breaking. "I know you. And I know you're better than this."

Shade's breath hitched.

Lucian's voice was silk. "Are you?"

And that was the moment Shade realized—

He had to make a choice.