The whispers began in the morning haze. Whispered, uncertain. By noon, there was thunder.
Luna was lost. She had disappeared from the palace.
By evening, the whole world churned with it.
Cassie leaped upon a mossy rock outcropping high in the mountains, gazing out across the world she had known. Smoke billowed from the chimneys of the village below—so tiny now, so far away. Her world, lost.
"She's missing."
"She fled with the shadow-marked traitor."
"She left her friends. The twins."
"She was never meant to be Luna."
Each sentence was a knife. Not because they were false. But because they were what the truth could look like fleeing in fear, pride, and treason.
Kael stood next to her, speechless.
"I didn't think it would happen so quickly," she gasped.
"They were waiting," said K
