Chapter 34: Ash and Aurora
The first thing Kairo heard was the wind.
It moved softly, brushing across his skin like a whisper from a world not yet certain he was alive. The second thing he felt was the ache—deep, marrow-deep, as if his bones had been remade under fire and ice.
When he opened his eyes, the sky above him was neither day nor night. It shimmered in shades of pale gold and soft indigo, as though dawn and dusk had fused into one endless horizon.
He was lying at the center of a crater. Around him, the ground was glassed and cracked, glowing faintly from within like molten crystal. The tower of black crystal was gone, replaced by a smooth hollow where light still lingered, rippling faintly as if breathing.
He sat up slowly, the movement painful. His vision blurred for a heart
