The air was thick with the scent of earth and blood, a scent that clung to Sienna’s skin like a forgotten promise. The garden before her was a place she’d known since childhood , rows of roses she had once tended with a quiet joy, pathways lined with ivy that now looked as if they might crawl up and swallow the world. But today, the garden was something else. Today, it was a battleground, painted with the crimson streaks of a night that had bled its way into dawn.
The sky above was pale, the first hints of daylight casting long, cold shadows across the blood-soaked earth beneath her boots. Her heart pounded in her chest, and with every ragged breath, the weight of her decision threatened to crush her. She wasn’t prepared for this , no one could be. The Council, her enemies, stood before
