SCARLETT
The world held its breath.
The red moon hung swollen and raw above the battlefield, casting every jagged shadow in blood-light. The Veil an endless tear of darkness howled like a living thing, its wind cold enough to cut bone.
I stood at the rampart’s edge, Kael’s fire-hot grip on my left arm, Darius’s storm-charged fingers on my right, Lucien’s shadow-silk presence at my back. My triune mark burned so fiercely I thought it might sear straight through my skin.
“Scarlett!” Kael’s voice was a furnace of urgency. “Seal it. Before it swallows everything.”
Darius’s storm-gray eyes crackled. “Close it now. Don’t give the Forgotten a chance to cross.”
Behind me, Lucien’s low whisper slid like smoke. “Or open it, little moonbane. End this war before it begins.”
The pull from the r
