**Nymera’s POV**
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Seven days.
That was all the time I had before the world came for me.
Seven days to master what I’d been avoiding.
Seven days to prepare for a war against gods, monsters, and former allies now calling themselves the Spiralborn.
The name alone made my skin crawl.
Not just because of what they were—but because they *were mine.*
Marked by the spiral.
Claimed by the same third force I barely understood.
They weren’t coming to kill me.
They were coming to *crown* me.
And that was worse.
---
“Again!” Dain barked.
I slammed into the dirt, breath knocked from my chest.
The sky above Hollowfang bled early light. Mist rolled across the broken field we’d turned into a training ground. Dain stood over me, arms crossed, face carved from stone.
“You hesitated,” he s
