RYKER’S POV
I stood at the edge of the factory’s upper office, the cold metal railing biting into my palms as I stared out over Tenebrous. The night stretched endless below, a sea of shadows swallowing the jagged cliffs where I’d last seen her—Selenea, broken and bleeding, tumbling into the void. Two months had passed since that blade sank into her chest, since I’d felt her life slip away under my hands. Two months, and still no body. My fingers tightened, the ache in my knuckles grounding me as the wind howled past, carrying the faint tang of rust and blood from the vats below.
I’d searched—sent men scrambling over those cliffs, tearing through the underbrush, scouring every crevice. Nothing. No trace of her. I’d plunged that dagger in myself, watched her eyes dim, her breath stutter to
