SCARLETT
The mountain lay in uneasy silence after the rift closed, but I felt no relief.
The red moon still glowed muted, yet patient as if waiting for its next move.
Kael’s firelight guttered around us, fading to embers. He turned to me, his copper eyes reflecting the moon’s glow. “Scarlett, talk to me. Are you hurt?”
I touched the mark on my shoulder. The skin was warm but no longer searing. “I’m fine… I think. But that thing down there whatever we sealed it isn’t gone. I can still feel it.”
Darius scanned the dark horizon where the fissure had been. Lightning flickered faintly in his hair like static. “You felt the same pressure I did, right? That was only a fragment of the Devourer.”
Lucien remained silent, the last wisps of shadow retreating from his hands. When he finally spok
