Morwenna's POV
The silence before battle isn’t peace. It’s pressure. A breath held too long. A string pulled tight, threatening to snap.
That’s how the air felt as I stood at the highest tower of the palace, staring down at the army forming outside our gates. Banners I didn’t recognize. Faces I hadn’t seen since the Auction. They came for war. For me.
Aedric stood at the front. Not in armor, not even in wolf form. Just robes of deep crimson and a smirk that turned my stomach. And beside him, the woman with obsidian eyes, her face identical to the mural of the First.
I turned away from the window. Sabine was behind me, pacing.
"The shard’s crack is growing," she said without looking up. "You barely held it together last time. It won’t survive another surge."
"Then I won’t use it," I r
