Morwenna's POV
Blood always tasted like metal and memory.
Mine hit my tongue before I realized it was mine at all. I staggered back against the broken roots of the ravine wall, clutching my ribs. Smoke curled from the gash across my stomach, and the power bleeding from it was... wrong. Not just celestial. Not just cursed. Something else had taken root. And it wasn’t sleeping anymore.
Liora crouched ahead of me, blade low, breath ragged. Her eyes shimmered with guilt, but her hands didn’t shake. That scared me more than the wound.
"You made me strong," she whispered. "And now you have to see what strength becomes."
I tried to rise. My vision flickered. I saw her past and mine colliding in brief bursts—her prison cell beneath the tower, my first shift into aetherlight, her betrayal, my
