Morwenna's POV
Smoke curled from the eastern towers, faint but rising. It hadn’t come from the fires Leofric and I had quelled. This was new. Distant. Controlled. Like a signal.
I stood on the edge of the battlements, wind tugging my hair loose, the cracked shard tight in my grip. Below, the army at the gates didn’t move, didn’t shout. They waited. Aedric waited. And beside him, that obsidian-eyed woman remained unnaturally still.
Sabine joined me, her cloak billowing. “They won’t wait long.”
“Then they’ll die tired.”
She glanced sideways. “That power you tapped into... it left a mark. On you. On him. It’s not done.”
I didn’t answer. I knew. I could feel it now, slithering under my skin. Something half-awake. Half-hungry.
Leofric was in the war chamber below, drafting last defenses
