Lincoln's POV:
It felt like waking into a world that had forgiven itself overnight the next morning after our temporary celebration.
Sunlight came out into Duskbane's eastern courtyard in gentle sheets, soft gold and not the harsh glare I'd expected after so many nights of fire. Dew clung to the stone like tiny stars melting into water. The air itself seemed to glow, warmed by something the earth itself exhaled.
The castle was silent.
Too quiet, perhaps.
But after everything—the eclipse, the war, the year of sleep I never meant to take—it felt like the kind of silence that makes me breath of hope, not fear.
I stretched my arms over my head, flinched at a tight pull along my ribs. Even resurrection didn't remove all aches.
Ignivar flew beside me, descended onto the window ledge.
“Yo
