Chapter 173
The floor beneath the council hall cracked open before anyone could move.
Ariana felt the shock travel through the stone and up her legs as the chamber split with a sound that made every wolf inside stumble backward. The golden light around her flared instinctively, and Kael pulled her closer before she fully lost her balance, one arm locking around her waist while his other hand braced against the shaking wall beside them.
Across the chamber, Augustus stood near the spreading darkness as if the breaking floor had nothing to do with him. Black veins of Underworld energy crawled through the cracks beneath his boots, but he did not step away from them. If anything, he looked like a man listening to something beneath the earth.
Vormerion lowered his massive bronze head, his glowing eyes fixed on the widening fracture. "The seal below the territory has broken."
The elders froze.
One of them shook his head, his face pale. "There is no seal beneath this hall."
