The moon hung low over Ashbourne, its silver glow painting the ruins in soft luminescence. What had once been a city of flame and fury was now slowly blooming—charred soil birthing new roots, broken walls wrapped in ivy that had no business growing in such a desolate place. Magic lingered in the very stones, reshaping the shattered bones of the past.
But peace was a fragile illusion.
And tonight, it shattered again.
I stood at the edge of the southern wall, where Kael had reinforced the outer defenses with runes carved in blood and bone. Mira had warned us they wouldn’t last forever. The Hollow Court had not retreated. They were biding their time, rebuilding just as we were.
Only they had centuries of cruelty to draw upon.
Ashbourne had only the desperate and the damned.
“What do you
