The first thing I felt was air. Real air — cold and sharp, filling my lungs like it had been waiting there all along. Then came the sounds. First, a distant ringing, then roaring, then voices. The world swam back into focus in pieces — the taste of dust on my tongue, the ache of stone beneath me, the smell of smoke in my nose.
When I opened my eyes again, the King’s grand tent was... gone. Or rather, what was left of it smoldered around me. The pillars had split like old bones, golden banners were reduced to ash and fire, and the tent's ceiling — that had just glittered with fancy chandeliers — was a jagged wound open to the storming sky above.
And in the center of it all, chaos reigned.
Jax, much to my own surprise, was the first familiar face I saw — his hair matted with dirt and blo
