Chapter 37
It was the silence that told her first.
Not pain.
Not fear.
Silence.
The constant hum she’d grown used to—the pulse beneath her ribs, the quiet pressure of power inside her—was gone. The world felt suddenly hollow, like something essential had stepped out of it.
Zainab pressed a hand to her stomach and felt nothing answer back.They didn’t need words.
Rowan knew the moment he stepped into the room.
Vaelor knew—and howled once, deep inside him, a sound of loss rather than rage.
The child was gone.
Not taken.
Not killed by violence.
But unable to remain.
The hybrid—too powerful, too contradictory, too new—had burned bright and brief. A being never meant for a world still ruled by old laws.Rowan did not scream.
He did not destroy.
That frightened everyone more.
He kn
