Chapter 58
****Elara’s POV****
The morning after the prisoner’s death, the camp woke to the scent of smoke—not from torches, but from the horizon itself.
The sky burned faintly red, streaked by dawn and something darker, something unnatural.
Elara watched the glow from her tent, already dressed in her travel leathers. Her fingers tightened around the crown hidden inside her satchel. She hadn’t told anyone about the sigil that burned itself into the floor of the dungeon, nor about the prisoner’s final words. Not yet.
Some truths were too heavy to speak before they were understood.
Lucien entered without announcement, his presence filling the air before she even turned. His armor was blackened steel, his hair tied back, his expression harder than she’d seen in weeks. He carried two sw
