Kaelin’s POV
The obsidian throne room of Oakhaven Castle stood in a state of unnatural stillness.
Usually, the shadow-ink lining the floor churned with the agitated, purple-hued frequency of a thousand stolen lifespans, but now, it lay flat. The liquid remained motionless, a mirror of black glass reflecting the bruised, plum-coloured canopy of the sky through the open dome.
I sat motionless, my fingers gripping the jagged armrests of the throne. A strange, suffocating pressure built within the marrow of my bones. For twenty years, the mountain had hummed with the discordant, ragged vibration of fractured elements, but today, that noise died.
A sudden, sharp snap echoed through the stone – the sound of a structural seal breaking deep within the earth.
I stood, my gaze fixing on the so
