Chapter 35
The silence in the stairwell was broken by the harsh, ragged sound of Aria’s own breathing. She pushed herself up, her vision swimming, the world a nauseating blur of stone and shadow. The body of Lyra, the Council’s most feared assassin, lay crumpled at her feet, a testament to a victory that felt horrifyingly like a defeat. Every muscle in Aria’s body screamed, and the poison from the stiletto’s cut was a spreading, icy numbness in her arm, making her feel disconnected from her own power. She could hear them coming. The rhythmic, disciplined tramp of armored boots, growing closer. The Ebon Guard. They would be on her in moments. She looked at her hand, trying to summon a simple sphere of twilight, her most basic expression of power. A weak, flickering gray light sputtered in her palm f
- Writer
