Chapter 40
Miron
The Council chamber felt colder than it had an hour ago.
Not physically—Stormfire had stabilized the wards, the air was steady—but in the way a room changes when a decision has already been made and everyone knows it. The mirrors lining the walls reflected nine elders seated at the crescent dais, their faces composed, distant, carved into authority.
Rayna stood where Krayvon had placed her, just below the dais line. Not kneeling. She’d refused that earlier, and Nyra had allowed it. Small mercies.
I was two steps behind her, spine straight, hands loose at my sides. Enforcer posture. The kind that said I belong here even when everything in me was screaming that I didn’t.
Nyra rose.
Her presence silenced the chamber without effort. Celestialflame light shimmered faintl
