The wind carried something different today—something Kara couldn’t ignore. As she stood on the edge of the palace’s eastern balcony, wrapped in her cloak, her white hair fluttered wildly in the breeze. The usual heaviness in the air had shifted, replaced by a subtle vibration in her bones, a whisper in the magic that threaded through her veins.
She closed her eyes, focusing.
There it was again.
A pulse.
Not magic from the ley lines.
Not one of the realm’s fading echoes.
But something intimately familiar.
Her eyes snapped open.
“Mother…”
She hadn’t spoken the word aloud in days, hadn’t even let herself hope. But her soul knew the truth before her mind could fully accept it.
Anaxia was alive.
And she was near.
A thousand emotions flooded Kara all at once—shock, guilt, confusion,
