The field was silent, but it wasn’t peace.
Silence is never peace—it is only the space where something sharp waits to move.
The generals had folded back into the air, into shadow and bone and silence. Their absence was a wound in the world, leaving the weight of their verdict behind. My chest still carried it—the pressure of three monsters bending to my will. It should have been intoxicating. Instead, it was suffocating.
Every heartbeat reminded me of what they had said: chains cut both ways.
Mira’s eyes never left me. Wide, unsteady, afraid of me in a way that had nothing to do with Varian. Her hand trembled on her staff, as if she didn’t know whether to reach for me or to keep her distance.
Kelvin muttered curses he didn’t finish, his voice dry, his body angled between me and the sh
