Chapter Sixteen: The Price of Power
The world did not shatter.
It folded.
*****
Cassandra
Time bent around her grief.
Jay’s blood soaked into her hands, warm, too warm, slipping through her fingers like something she could not hold onto no matter how hard she tried.
“No…” her voice trembled, but it wasn’t just hers anymore. “No… I won’t accept this.”
The darkness inside her surged.
Not wild.
Not uncontrolled.
But ancient.
Deliberate.
Hungry.
The golden glow that once radiated from her dimmed completely. It was replaced by a shadowed aura that twisted the air itself. The ground beneath her feet cracked, veins of black energy spreading outward like roots seeking something deeper.
Something final.
Cicilia staggered back, fear flashing across her face. “Cassandra… listen to me!
