The ruins are eerily silent. The echoes of battle still hum in the air, a faint pulse of lingering energy, but the First is gone.
For now.
I can still feel the magic coursing through me—raw, untamed, dangerous. The moment I’d unleashed it, I had felt something shift. Not just in me, but in the world around me. Like a door had opened, and now… something was watching.
Something waiting.
Damien groans as he pushes himself up, wincing. His wolf form had shielded him from the worst of the damage, but even he isn’t invincible. I rush to him, kneeling beside him.
“Damien—”
“I’m fine,” he mutters, but I can hear the strain in his voice. His golden eyes meet mine, searching. “What the hell just happened?”
I don’t know how to answer.
Selene steps forward, her expression unrea
