Nymera’s POV
The rain had stopped.
Hollowfang was silent except for the distant groans of the wounded and the occasional crash of crumbling stone.
We had won.
But it didn’t feel like victory.
I stood on the ridge where Astra’s body lay sprawled, eyes wide open, smile frozen in death.
Kaelith had turned away, blood dripping from a wound on his brow. Dain stood beside me, still as a statue, his silver gaze locked on the horizon.
“I don’t trust it,” he muttered. “It ended too easily.”
“She’s dead,” I said, though even as the words left my mouth, I wasn’t sure I believed them.
“She is,” Kaelith said flatly, wiping his blade on his sleeve. “But whatever gave her that power? It’s still out there.”
Dain didn’t speak.
I watched him from the corner of my eye. Since the battle, the bond b
