Moonlight diced the chapel's stained glass into blood-red checkerboards. Kane's pocket watch chimed across three centuries as Alyssa's hairpin pierced a 1715 communion chalice. The 2025 vampire emissary gagged, coughing up dark-crimson gears—his internal chronometer.
"Don't play with time, darling." Layne's voice oozed from all shadows. His 1802 specter was biting Alyssa's great-grandmother's neck while his present self whispered behind her: "Vampire brides always lose their way in cycles."
Alyssa's Moonflare raven shattered the stained glass. Four memories glinted in the shards:
Autumn 1798, Vampire Dungeon Adeline's chains scored musical notes into stone. Her phoenix flames withered inside the prototype silver ring. Lóthar (then Layne) pressed a bloodied betrothal contract to her festering palm: "Write your father you'll marry into Silverfang." Tarnished mirrors showed bat wings fringed with wolf fangs behind him.
Winter 1944, Laboratory Layne in SS uniform wiped his scalpel, lens focused on the wolf-eared girl: "Seventh hybrid trial." As he split her third intercostal space, her blood coagulated into a phoenix shape, burning the film. Elderly Adeline's face flashed in glass fragments.
Spring 2023, University Archives Student Alyssa traced torn family trees. Kane "accidentally" dropped 1798 wedding invitations. Through storm-lashed windows, Layne's reflection smiled in puddles, holding the same ruby ring.
Present, Chrono-Rift Kane's watch gears jammed Alyssa's Moonflare. His blade pressed against tri-era Laynes: "You stole my mother's eyes." The steel mirrored silver fluid seeping from Alyssa's bite mark—the First Wolf Queen's marrow hue.
Layne's specters laughed in sync. Stained glass exploded. In fractured timelines, Alyssa saw her vari-aged selves wearing the cursed ring in coffins. The youngest "her" at sixteen carved on the lid:
"Endless Night Comes at Seventh Cycle"
Kane's arrow pierced temporal veils, striking Alyssa's ring-giving great-grandfather. The chapel collapsed into a singularity as Layne's voice echoed omnidirectionally:
"Count your heartbeats, darling. How many left to escape this Möbius strip?"
Alyssa's final phoenix fire birthed neither bird nor beast—a burning pocket watch gear clamped onto her silvering wrist.