Chapter Twenty-Four
Ashbound Oaths
The Ashbound Book pulsed faintly in Lyra’s hands.
Even sealed, the weight of it seeped into her bones. Its pages whispered in tongues she didn’t know she knew, carved in ancient runes that shifted as if alive. The cover was warm—too warm—and the spine wept red, as though it had been bound not with thread, but veins.
Back in the Hollow, Lyra laid the book across the sacred altar beneath the Weeping Tree, flanked by Veyra, Kael, and three surviving Elders of the Frostborne.
The final blood moon was only days away.
And with it, the last chance to bind the gate.
Veyra’s fingers hovered above the pages, hesitant. “This was not meant for mortal hands.”
Lyra’s voice was steady. “It’s already in mine.”
Kael stood beside her, pale but recovering. He hadn’
