Chapter 71
Third POV
Wind howled through the ruins of Lunaris Vale as if the dead themselves were exhaling.
The deeper Gabriella and the Alphas walked into Ava’s ancestral land, the more reality twisted. The sky dimmed, turning the color of bruised twilight. The trees bent inward as though bowing to an unseen presence. The air grew colder, sharper—thin enough that each breath sliced like glass.
None of them spoke.
They felt it.
They were being watched.
Gabriella tightened her grip on her cloak as another pulse crawled across her spine—the Devourer’s mark burning faintly. Ava stirred inside her, restless, whispering warnings as silver veins flickered beneath Gabriella’s skin.
We are close. Too close.
Gabriella swallowed. “I know.”
Tristan glanced back, expression carved from tensi
