The morning air was unnaturally still.
Even the birds had gone silent.
Aria stood at the edge of the dais, one hand hovering over the suspended girl’s chest. The pulse of the rune on the third Moonborn’s temple was growing stronger—slowly syncing to Aria’s own.
Talia paced nearby, her runes flaring like restless lightning. “We don’t know what happens when she wakes. She might lash out. She might not even know who she is.”
“She’ll feel our bond,” Aria said. “Just like we felt each other.”
“Unless she’s broken,” Kade added grimly.
Aria nodded once, then knelt, her breath catching.
She whispered the unbinding incantation. Words she didn’t know she remembered until they spilled from her lips like inherited truth.
The rune on the girl’s temple blazed to life.
The ground quivered beneat
