The ruins breathed, not in the way a living thing did, but in the slow, calculated rhythm of something ancient, something waiting. The halls no longer rang with Selene’s footsteps. Her scent, once threaded through every corner of the castle like moonlight through trees, had faded.
Now, the ruins smelled of steel, smoke, and blood.
Orion stood at the center of it all, as still as a statue and twice as cold. She had left. She had escaped. But worse than that, she had begun to rise.
He summoned the high war council at dusk. No announcements, no fanfare. Just the silent command passed down through guards, causing advisors to drop what they were doing and rush to the war hall. There were fewer of them now. Some had gone missing. Others had been dismissed without a word.
The remaining few en
