Chapter 55
****Elara’s POV****
The smell of metal and burnt oil filled the war camp that night. A storm hovered on the horizon, its lightning flashing like the gods themselves were unsheathing their blades. Inside Lucien’s command tent, the flickering lanterns painted the maps with ghostly shadows, tracing the lines of a war that had already devoured half the realm.
Elara sat alone at a smaller table, her hands wrapped around a cup of untouched tea that had long gone cold. The tent was quiet except for the rhythmic patter of rain against the canvas. She could still hear the screams from the siege—the chaos, the smell of ash, the look in the eyes of those Kael’s army left behind.
She had led a rescue unit, but she’d also seen horrors that would never fade. The worst of them all wasn’t t
