The first thing Aria noticed was the silence.
Not the calm kind but the kind that pressed too tightly against her ears, as if the world itself was holding its breath. The sanctum’s torches no longer flickered. Their flames burned steady and pale, drained of warmth.
That alone told Kael something was wrong.
“Stay close,” he said quietly, already moving.
Aria followed, her senses sharpened in a way that frightened her. Since Selene’s test, the embers no longer slept quietly inside her. They stirred constantly, reacting to shifts in the air, to shadows that lingered too long, to silence that felt unnatural.
“Where did she go?” Aria asked.
“She won’t strike here,” Kael replied. “Not yet. Selene never fights where she doesn’t control the outcome.”
That was not comforting.
They passed th
