NORA POV
The Moon Citadel loomed like a crown of bone.
Black spires pierced the sky, ringed in chains of molten silver, magic pulsing through every link. It didn’t welcome visitors—it warned them.
I stood at the edge of the cliff with Eiran beside me, the Forgotten scattered behind like shadows.
“This place… it smells like ash,” Reya muttered, clutching her bow.
“Because it burns everything good,” Veya whispered. “It’s where the Summit makes monsters.”
I clenched the obsidian blade in my hand.
This time, I wasn’t the girl they betrayed.
I was the reckoning they tried to erase.
“Let’s go burn the lie.”
MAREK POV
She was here.
I felt her long before the Citadel wards were triggered.
Nora.
Her name burned on my tongue like guilt. Like need. Like punishment.
Councilor Thess st
