Cemetery moonlight twisted into crimson threads as Layne's silver clasp flickered codes before the eighth nameless grave. Withered roses snagged Alyssa's skirt as she spied asphalt-like ooze seeping from his cloak—blood unfit for vampire nobility.
"Blood moon aligns with Sirius in three nights," the emissary's voice ground like rusted gears, bone flute protruding from robes. "Coordinates set at the first Wolf Queen's birthing grounds." The virgin-tears parchment revealed sacred maps under moonlight, scorched by Layne's ring.
Alyssa's Moonflare raven thrashed in her ribcage. Her broken hairpin burned, reflecting the emissary's hem insignia—matching Kane's wolf-hunt tattoo. As Layne played the flute, gravestone shadows morphed into gallows, seventeen mummified werewolves humming underground.
"Darling needs tracking lessons." Layne's pupils spider-split momentarily. His finger grazed her collarbone bite, pearl blood droplets sucked into the flute. "Know why you're chosen? Moonflare blood alone can activate..."
Chains snapped below. Alyssa feigned tripping, Moonflare tail feathers exposing the emissary's bandaged wolf paw beneath robes. The snarling emissary unearthed graves, but Layne shoved her into a sprung coffin: "A gift."
Rotting darkness revealed claw marks—fresh ones from missing wolf pups. Moonflare phoenix incinerated the casket, exposing Layne driving the flute into the emissary's eye socket. Black blood hit the sacred totem, etching bat-wing trenches across the cemetery.
Kane's arrow pierced Layne's phantom, embedding near Alyssa's foot. The lace fragment on its fletching reeked of Evelyn's perfume. Dying pup whimpers harmonized with the flute's vibration.
"Game elevated." Layne's voice echoed from every tombstone as the emissary's corpse melted into coordinates. "Now you see why the ring chose its bride..."
Bat swarms blotted moonlight. When Alyssa's phoenix fire lit the sky, all epitaphs read: "When bridal tears drown the silver band, the Wolf Queen's womb births endless night."