The night feels wrong.
Not quiet.
Not loud.
Hollow.
I sense it hours before the wards tremble—an emptiness in the air that presses against my skin like an inhaled breath that never exhales. The Flame inside me tightens violently around the child, coiling like a living blade.
“Zane,” I whisper.
He wakes instantly.
“What do you feel?”
“Nothing,” I answer.
His jaw tightens. “That’s worse.”
⸻
The intrusion doesn’t come through the borders.
It comes inside the tower.
Every protection Jason laid, every rune Bram carved, every Fireward Zane forged with his own Flame—slips without triggering an alarm.
The Covenant has learned.
The air bends.
Reality folds.
And the Shadow Vessel steps through my chamber wall like it was never solid at all.
She is alone.
Smiling.
“So close to bir
