Emma
The truth about Nightwind didn’t leave my chest when the lesson ended.
It stayed there—heavy and hot, like I’d swallowed a stone that somehow had a heartbeat. Even after Lucian closed his laptop, even after he rolled up the last map and tucked the old book back into its protective sleeve, I could still hear his voice in my head: regent… temporary… claws deep… still ruling.
Malrec Vane.
The name felt like a bruise.
I left the study with my mind full and my body strangely hollow, as if the weeks of information had finally stacked high enough to tilt something inside me. Winter was fading outside, the last snow shrinking into dirty patches along the trees, but the cold had moved inward. It sat in my hands, my throat, the spaces between my ribs.
Lucian walked beside me through the h
