Chapter Twenty four:Ashes and silence
The forest smells like smoke for weeks. Charred earth stretches beyond the stronghold walls. Blackened trees stand like skeletal witnesses to what heaven attempted. The lycans bury their dead in silence. No howls. No ceremonies of victory. Only grief. Malachai walks among the fallen warriors without his Alpha mantle. No command. No roar. Only quiet acknowledgment of loss. The war was not symbolic. It was real. And they paid for it. Aurelia does not attend the burials at first. She cannot. Every grave feels like pressure in her chest. Every name carved into stone echoes inside her bones. Being Anchor means feeling the balance shift. She feels each death. Each ripple. Each fracture in the world’s equilibrium. Power is not intoxicating anymore. It is heavy. Heaven does not a
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