Thunder rolled above Raven’s Peak, but no rain followed. The kind that pressed against skin and lungs and made even the strongest soldiers uneasy.
Victor felt it before anyone else did.
He was halfway through a council briefing when the first pulse struck.
A sudden hollowing in his chest, as if something essential had slipped loose inside him. His voice faltered mid-sentence. The council members stilled.
“My lord?” one ventured carefully.
Victor straightened in his seat. “Continue.”
But the words around him blurred. The torches along the chamber walls flickered unevenly, their flames thinning and stretching toward him.
Then the hollow filled with fire.
The pain detonated behind his eyes so violently that the table in front of him split down the center as his hands slammed into it.
