Chapter Thirty One: Crimson Skies The sky bled red over Seattle. Not the soft blush of sunset or the gentle hues of twilight—but a furious, boiling crimson, as if the heavens themselves had been slashed open. Aurora stood atop the Space Needle’s skeletal remains, Kael beside her, his golden eyes reflecting the sky’s wrath. Smoke curled through the air like serpents, twisting and hissing as distant fires painted the horizon. Lyric had unleashed hell. The first wave came without warning. An eerie silence descended in the early morning hours, just before the dawn, before the city stirred awake. Then came the screech—high-pitched and inhuman—as creatures not seen since the darkest parts of myth clawed their way into the waking world. The skies split with the thunder of wings. Wraith-beas

