Grave soil clung to Alyssa's fingers as silver veins scorched the Wolf Mother's fang hilt. The seventy-third silver wolf skeleton lay shrouded in moss-covered linen, its ribs clutching a bronze emblem half-matching Kane's blade groove.
"Crone's burial shroud comes fancy." She slit vascular sutures on the inner layer. Fetid fluid dripped, etching inverted triangles into stone. A raven feather dipped in mucus drew a spirit pact array, triggering bone walls to exude amniotic fluid stinking of three-century-old blood.
Moonlight shifted. Moss on the shroud writhed, coalescing into vampiric runes: Sacrifice silver wolf lineage monthly till 73rd blood moon. Breach invokes bone-curse, sigil corrosion. Lily sigils at the corner oozed sweetness—identical to her mother's poison. Alyssa's silver veins constricted, branding an inverse "Mad King" pattern onto her palm.
"Treatment for kleptomania?" Kane's voice dripped from skull oculus above. His bleeding sigil corroded the shroud's runes. "Think crone's waters cleanse blood vows?"
Alyssa flung a dead mouse from her boot. Rotting flesh activated confinement runes, shredding Kane's projection. She tore the shroud's inner layer—infant swaddle fragments embroidered with ouroboros wolves being devoured by Kane's sigil.
"Two-way feeding?" She stuffed swaddle into wounds, silver veins pumping corpse fluid. Ravens dive-bombed with bitten silver nails engraved matching triangles.
Kane materialized through blood mist as she wiped nails with swaddle. A cracked nail revealed micro-scroll: Retain sacrifice's silver hair at Wolf Mother's sacral altar. Her disguised hair ends melted into azure sludge.
"Vessel modification 53%." Kane's flaying knife sent nails flying. His blade traced her collarbone, reversing "73" into proto-wolf glyphs. "Peeking recipes makes no chef."
Spinal explosions echoed below. Dodging, Alyssa toppled bones—a pup skeleton bit her wrist, its skull housing a silver bell imprinted with her baby teeth. The ringing synchronized with bone-wall tremors, oozing records: Laine's proposal: Reset timelines with silver wolf prenatal blood.
"Easter egg buffet?" Crushing the bell, shards gashed her fingers. Blood splattering Kane's sigil bleached it into Wolf Mother's birthmark. Moonlight revealed inverse "73" branded on his nape—mirroring her wound.
Dawn mist brought ravens carrying bloodied rose tattoo scraps. More swaddle fragments hid in shroud layers—each stitched with death dates, the newest matching tonight's blood moon calendar.