Eldros was not a city.
It was a graveyard.
The ruins stretched for miles—blackened stone, shattered pillars, and the ghost of a once-glorious kingdom. The air was thick with smoke and memory. And blood.
So much blood.
I stepped through the arched remains of the entrance, boots crunching over bones. The wind howled through broken walls, whispering names long forgotten.
Kael’s name wasn’t among them.
Not yet.
But if I was too late…
No.
I wouldn’t think it.
I wouldn’t let it happen.
The Moonstone pulsed violently against my skin, guiding me toward the heart of the ruins. The altar.
I found him beneath the shattered dome.
Kael.
Chained to an obsidian slab, shirtless and bleeding. His chest rose with shallow, ragged breaths. Cuts crisscrossed his skin—some fresh, some ancient.
An
